Christchurch secondary school pupils have again made a clean sweep of the prizes at the South Island Brain Bee Challenge, held in Dunedin yesterday.
About 90 year 11 pupils from 19 South Island secondary schools converged on the University of Otago yesterday, each vying for honours in round two of the International Brain Bee competition.
The challenge asked questions to determine who was the ''best brain'' on such topics as intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movement, stress, ageing, sleep, addiction, Alzheimer's and stroke.
The teams event was won by Villa Maria College (Christchurch), followed by runners-up Riccarton High School and third-placed Christ's College.
Villa Maria College (Christchurch) pupil Millie Young won the individual event, ahead of runner-up Luke Gellen, of Christ's College, and third-placed Grace Puentener-King, of Christchurch Girls' High School.
Millie will now attend the Australasian Neuroscience Society annual meeting in Adelaide in January, to take part in the Brain Bee Challenge national final, where she will go head to head with the North Island's round-two winner and Australian winners.
Previous South Island winners have achieved podium finishes in the finals, from which the Australasian winner goes on to the world championship challenge.
As well as competing in team and individual challenges yesterday, pupils attended short lectures from some of the University of Otago's leading neuroscientists, and were taken on tours of laboratories involved in neuroscience research at the university.
