Many year 12 students like to spend their winter resting before their final semester of school, but Thomas Houlden spent his time in Germany inserting jellyfish DNA into bacteria.
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Thomas was one of three year 12 Catholic College Bendigo students who spent their holidays either interstate or overseas, a feat science facilitator Marita Haigh said was rare.
“It’s unusual for this school and a lot of others to have so many students accepted to high profile programs at roughly the same time,” she said.
“These three guys are amazing. They are incredible young men in their own right, but academically they are very bright and always willing to give anything a go.”
For Bailey Chappel the break was a chance to travel to Canberra for a week-long planning session ahead of January’s National Youth Science Forum 2017.
“We, the students, will run the sessions for all of the 12 days of the forum. So the most recent trip was about how we could effectively come together as a team of leaders,” he said.
“I felt it was a chance to get more comfortable stepping back and trusting in other’s leadership abilities.”
Meanwhile, Thomas spent his holiday in Gröttingen, Germany, with students from around the world.
The students were there for intensive sessions on neurophysiology, molecular biology and immunology.
“So, for example, we were using jellyfish genes to make fluorescent bacteria,” he said.
The aspiring neuroscientist said the trip was was a chance to discover new ways of seeing the world.
“What interests me about neuroscience is the way the brain constructs pictures of reality. It is very different for each organism,” he said.
“For instance, ants sense reality through pheromones and smells, whereas we sense it through sight and sound.”
For Leon Polychronopoulos a trip to Queensland was a chance to discover more about higher education while studying at the University of Queensland.
“I want to study medicine and the trip probably made me surer about committing to that field,” he said.
“And it was good to see how other universities in other states offer their medicine courses. Before the trip I would never have considered going interstate to study, but maybe now the University of Queensland is an option.”
Leon said it was also a chance to see things usually off limits to members of the public.
“For example the Queensland Museum’s collection of unidentified species. The museum receives a lot of animals – mostly spiders and bugs – from the public for identification,” he said.
“That’s how they discover new species.”
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
