The Aurora Energy Otago Science and Technology Fair, displayed in the Hutton Theatre at Tūhura Otago Museum, was packed wall-to-wall with the latest and greatest from Dunedin secondary school pupils yesterday.
Convener and chief judge Steven Sexton said this year’s science fair received 298 entries across nearly 400 secondary school pupils.
Her project, Is Our Whenua Eating Healthy?, put the answer to rest about which soil in Dunedin was the healthiest.
Anja predicted the top of Mt Cargill would yield the healthiest soil, with the grass at the bottom, near the Leith River, being the unhealthiest.
Her findings showed Fern’s Gully was in fact the best, while the Botanic Gardens fared poorly.
She suspected the cause of this may have something to do with the garden’s ducks, if not for the University of Otago’s student wildlife.
Anja said she had a lot of fun conducting her experiment, even if the big walk was a bit tiring.
One pupil, from Arrowtown, constructed a fleet of miniature drones from scrap metal.
Another pupil crafted magic wands from types of wood with different properties.
A year 11 pupil, who won this year’s best in fair, conducted a nationwide secondary school survey.
Dr Sexton said 200 schools responded and the pupil received 800 responses, which the judges said was so much data that not even their master’s degree students could obtain it.
He said the judges were always particularly impressed with projects spurred from personal interest.
"You did this because you want to, not because your teacher said to," he said.
"Those are almost always the ones that win."
The science fair is free to the public until Sunday.
