Science a winner for students

Young Whanganui inventors came up with some impressive projects for the regional science fair again this year.

Mia Perkins of Whanganui Intermediate won the biological section as well as the overall prize for her Symphonic Sewage project which earned her a prize of a bluetooth speaker donated by TCL Communications.

Emily Whittaker of TCL said the telecommunication contracting company had supported the science fair for a long time.

"I have been here for nine years and we have been donating prizes to the winners for as long as I can remember," she said.

"Some of these young people will be working in this industry in the future and developing new technologies, so it is very fitting that we support them now."

Other prize winners at the fair were Emma Henare, who won the physical category as well as a statistics prize with her Vibration Sensation project which investigated the effects of sound waves on different substances such as iron sand, rice and flour in order to give a visual representation of them.

Andrew Dickson's Acid and Sugar project, which gained him first place in the chemical category, investigated a link between the amount of sugar in a drink and the level of acidity.

Messina Su'a won the technological category for Weaving to Weed Matting which was an experiment in weed control.

Messina used different methods of weaving harakeke (flax) to make mats to help eliminate garden weeds.

First place in the environmental section went to Olivia Bedwell for her Growing Up Fast entry.

She worked to devise an environmentally friendly fertiliser and compared it with commercial varieties.

Blake Hoskin won a statistics prize for Reducing CO2 and Kalani Matthews also won a prize in that category for Pasta Hot or Cold and Jenna Ruggiero won a prize from the baking industry for her development of an effective recipe for chocolate cake.