New science for scholarship winners

Madison Clarke and Dong Mei Lim are two lucky Forest View High School science students.

The year 12 students, who are both topping their classes, have been selected from hundreds of students from throughout the country to attend special science programmes in Auckland and Wellington in December this year and in January 2017.

Dong Mei will be taking part in the Science Forum 2017 at Auckland University for two weeks while Madison will be spending four days in Wellington visiting and working in various labs as part of the Powering Potential programme.

Dong Mei’s stint, which is being fully funded by the Rotary Club of Tokoroa, will see her staying in a hostel at the university in order to experience university life as well as exploring various sciences in labs to see what she comes up with.

She was looking forward to her stay and meeting the other 180 students who have been selected from other schools.

‘‘I’m looking forward to just experiencing it, learning all the new science things, and using resources that we don’t have in the classroom,’’ she said.

‘‘There will be 3D printing and fun stuff like that as well as chemistry and physics which we will use labs for. It will be quite flash.’’

She thanked her teacher Kamal Nair and the Rotary Club of Tokoroa for making it possible for her.

‘‘I was quite surprised when I got it but I am happy as I plan to go to university and it will be a good opportunity to see and learn what it’s like,’’ she said.

Madison’s trip [December 12-15] is funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand and will be attended by only 40 other students.

It will be project based, incorporating science and technology that encourages students to think outside the square.

‘‘They don’t want to tell us too much about it as they want it to be a surprise but it will be about exploring new ideas and there will also be something in groups because on the last day there will be a presentation,’’ she said.

She plans to study geology once she finishes school.

‘‘It was cool when I got selected, I didn’t want to read it at first as I was too scared,’’ she laughed.

Teacher Kamal Nair said often students apply for such opportunities and miss out due to space restrictions so he encouraged them to make the most of it.