Tonight we had Sara Belkner from King’s Baptist Grammar present on her recent attendance of the National Youth Science Forum in January.
This year, due to the COVID situation, the NYSF program was run online and each day the students engaged in several web based talks & presentations.
Most in which we just listened to however a few were interactive. I was able to extract DNA from a strawberry in my bedroom which was pretty cool and a few nights a week we had small groups where we did little activities together. These small groups contained NYSFers from all around Australia and this was the only interaction we had with people outside our state.
NYSF 2021 also consisted of 3 in-person STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) visits. These STEM visits allowed Sara to make close relationships with like minded people from all over South Australia.
I was able to make a few really close friends which i am very grateful for. My favourite in person visit was at the University campus at Roseworthy. Te day was full of activities and I learnt an endless amount of information on a range of animal activity, nature and animal fertility which was extremely interesting.
Unfortunately, Sara had to report that she personally, and many other applicants she met, found the online courses difficult to connect with and irrelevant from their personal interests.This is a shame to hear, as previous years the main draw of the NYSF program was to connect students with others around Australia and immerse them in a variety of professions, businesses and institutions. To give them real-life experiences and open them up to new possibilities.
Nevertheless, I certainly learnt many new things and discovered topics that I never knew existed. Therefore this experience was certainly very beneficial and I am extremely grateful for your help and support.
Our club enjoys supporting students like Sara and believe its a important opportunity for them in furthering their education & future careers.