Budding scientists impress seasoned judges
The National Science Challenge (NSC) competitors may only be in Secondary Three, but they demonstrated an understanding of high-level concepts that wowed Dr Lim Yee Hwee, scientist and team leader of A*STAR’s Institute of Chemical and Engineer Sciences.
Dr Lim was one of the NSC judges, along with Dr Shen Bing Quan, senior defence researcher, DSO National Laboratories, Information Division, Cognitive and Fusion Lab; and Associate Professor Andre Choo, institute scientist and director of A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute.
“There were a lot of challenges that even we found tough but the students managed to pull through. They were able to explain concepts logically and put together presentations in a very short period of time,” said Dr Lim.
Victoria School (VS) won this year’s competition, ahead of Catholic High School (first runner-up) and DPS International School (second runner-up).
Now in its 15th season, the National Science Challenge (NSC) remains one of the most exciting opportunities available to Secondary Three students who are passionate about science and eager to put their knowledge to the test.
Jointly organised by Science Centre Singapore and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the NSC is a televised game show in which teams of 15-year-olds undergo gruelling studio rounds involving presentations and quizzes, as well as on-site practical challenges.
FIRST STEPS TO THE GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP
The nature of the competition – which rigorously tests participants’ critical-thinking skills – means that the element of the unknown is ever-present. But teams did what they could to mitigate this by conducting extensive research to widen their knowledge.
Liu Tianchi of VS said: “We watched previous NSC episodes to see what kind of questions were likely to come out and what skills they would test us in. This prepared us mentally.”
Catholic High School’s (CHS) Andre Koh recounts his team’s similar preparation method: “We watched past NSC episodes. Our experienced seniors and teachers also advised us, which was really helpful.”
For Razan Siraj of DPS International School (DPS), going back to basics and prepping as a team was most useful. He said: “Before going for the preliminary round, we solved question papers online and shared tough problems with one another.”
WHEN THE GOING GOT TOUGH
For all their studying and strategising, the teams knew they would face the unexpected as the competition was whittled down to 24 teams in the quarter-finals, then 12 in the semi-finals. Several tasks were new to them, but the teams powered through with creative thinking, improvisation and a little luck.
DPS’ Shivam Jhunjhunwala found the quantitative Benedict’s reagent test during the quarter-finals the most challenging.
“This was the first time I had done a practical experiment with chemicals,” he said. “Our team did not get a result for the concentration of sugar in our chosen drink, root beer. It was nerve-racking to give a presentation without answering the main question. But with a bit of luck and deep scientific reasoning, we were able to put up a fair presentation.”
For Clarence Emmanuel Chua of CHS, the Imagineering Challenge was the most daunting. “There were many improvements our prototype needed and we did not know if we could improve it within the time allocated to us,” he said “To achieve this, we focused on the key principles of our prototype and worked on the basic ideas first.”
CHS’ Imagineering Challenge – making a Lilliputian launcher – required them to build a miniature siege engine that could launch an egg as far as possible, without breaking the egg.
The VS team struggled with building an elastic band car for the challenge, requiring repeated attempts and brainstorming before they succeeded. Doing all this while in the spotlight was most difficult for team member Nicholas Tan. He shared: “We had to present in front of cameras, which was scary, but with confidence and determination to succeed, I managed to speak as calmly as possible.”
For Andre of CHS, the NSC was a golden opportunity to grow as a student as well as to show everyone the beauty of science. Said Andre: “Learn, innovate and have fun! Show Singapore that science is not a mundane subject. It is a beautiful universal language that helps show how the world works.”
Catch the finals of NSC 2018 as well as past episodes on NSC on Toggle.
