Science Education News (SEN) Journal 2017 Volume 66 Number 4 December 2017 | Page 14

ASSOCIATION NEWS
2017 Young Scientist Awards (continued)
(iii) 2017 Young Scientist ISEF team record best ever results
by an Australian team (May).
Just prior to this announcement by Rob Stokes our victorious
2017 STANSW Young Scientist ISEF team returned home from
Los Angeles with our best ever result of 4 Grand Awards (1st,
3rd, 3rd & 4th) plus a US$1,000 sponsored award. Social
media updates and live-streaming of major ISEF events and
Young Scientist activities provided an accessible source of
communication between the ISEF team and followers back in
Australia and around the world – a real-time exposure we have
never had before. A big thank you to our chaperone and ICT
expert, Ian Fairhurst, who made this social media communication
possible!
It was Macinley’s first place award at this year’s International
Science and Engineering Awards that really captured the
judges’ attention and was featured in media reports. In a most
significant way this personal award of Macinley’s can be
viewed as a major victory for all associated with STANSW and
the Young Scientist Awards, for it publicly demonstrates how
our professional profile has been overwhelmingly accepted
by the general community, so this event alone should make
every SEN reader proud that we are making a definite positive
contribution as a teaching profession. In the same way Eddie
Woo (left) who won the NSW Local Hero Award, is helping to
raise the profile of MANSW and Mathematics education in NSW.
(iv) Launch of Rural Young Scientist Awards (August)
Now back in Australia and ready to settle down to the run-in period
for 2017 entries, our preparations were pleasantly rocked by the
offer of a new suite of rural awards by the Sapphire Foundation.
The Sapphire Foundation is an Australian not-for-profit charitable
fund operating on the Far South Coast of NSW, whose mission
is to support and encourage children to pursue their interest in
science, mathematics and technology by providing grants which
can be allocated to community science-related programs and
projects. The Sapphire Foundation has agreed to donate $4,000
in prizes for high-performing rural projects, and an all-expenses-
paid trip to ISEF for the top two rural projects and one rural
teacher chaperone for the next four years.
We wish both Macinley and Eddie all the best in the national 2018
Australian of the Year Awards in January, and it definitely caps off
a most eventful and highly successful year for our STEM-based
project.
(v) Largest ever Australian ISEF team announced at the
Presentation Ceremony (November)
Now for some details of our 2017 STANSW Young Scientist
Presentation Ceremony …
With a team project being selected as one of the two best rural
projects, The Sapphire Foundation agreed to increase their
donation to make it possible for both team members to attend
ISEF. Likewise, with a team project being selected in the top five
projects selected by the ISEF Panel, Sebel Furniture, our principal
sponsor, agreed to increase their level of sponsorship to make
it possible to send all five selected projects. Consequently, our
STANSW Young Scientist team for 2018 ISEF Pittsburgh has a
massive nine members, joined by the rural te acher chaperone
plus the Year 7/8 Broadcom MASTERS International delegate.
(vi) NSW Young Australian of the Year (November)
Less than two weeks after our Presentation Ceremony the NSW
Australian of the Year committee selected Macinley Butson as
the 2018 NSW Young Australian of the Year. She received her
award from NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, at the Museum of
Contemporary Art (Macinley Butson, far right).
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 66 NO 4