A CRACKING EXPERIMENT
DESPITE school being suspended for half of term 2,
Sleek Geeks 2020 was still full steam ahead.
In Sleek Geeks, children make videos explaining different scientific concepts in a predetermined amount of time. In 2019, last year, the time limit was three minutes. There was also no theme.
This year though, things were different.
To make it easier for judges to assess a video against a criterion, Sleek Geeks Eureka Science Prize added a theme, water. They also shortened the video time limit to 90 seconds, so I had to speed up that script. The idea was that we would be able to easily make a compact video on some scientific element of water.
You could make a video about how many parasites are in water, or which brand of soap works best at cleaning your hands with water, or the topic I chose: when can water behave like concrete?
The basis of Sleek Geeks is to demonstrate and teach children the scientific method, in other words, bring out our inner mad scientist. I’ll use my video this year as an example. I chose my topic and I made my hypothesis: “I think that water can behave like concrete if you land on it from a high distance with speed”.
Once I’ve made the hypothesis, the real fun begins. Time to break out the lab coats and science goggles because we’re on to the experiment.
So, for my experiment, I launched an egg into a bathtub to see if it would crack into a million pieces. In any experiment, you only change one variable. For me, that was how I launched the egg. I dropped it, catapulted it, and slingshotted it. All methods failed except one – the slingshot. So I looked at what was different to the slingshot, and ultimately concluded that due to the fact of the slingshot’s control and speed, it was the best method to break the egg. Much to mum’s annoyance, I went through a lot of eggs.
After I wrote a script, filmed, and edited all the clips together, I submitted my video online.
On Wednesday, August 26, I will find out if I’ve won some money. First, second, and third cash prizes range from a giant $1000 to an impressive $250. The actual prizes are larger, like $2000 and $500, but you give half to your school. I hope that money goes to adding lots and lots of new books in the library. So, if you’re feeling sciencey and looking to win some prizes (and some book vouchers), be on the lookout for Sleek Geeks 2021.
Teachers are invited to send in their students’ news articles, feature articles, letters to the editor and photographs for publication. Upload your contributions to cairnspost.com.au/inspire