Brain Bee Challenge 2021
What a fabulous and engaging online event the Australian Brain Bee Final was! Many thanks go to Ramesh Rajan (Professor of Physiology, Monash University and National Coordinator of the Australian Brain Bee Challenge), who had spent considerable time organising and then adapting the Victorian Final from a "face-to-face" event to an online event - a huge feat and very successful!
It was great to view the engaging video that our student participants, Annablle P, Jo Q, Suchiti S, and Jessie T produced for the Team Event and to watch the other school videos. In what was described by the judges as a “really tough decision” amongst such high quality videos, the Team Event was ultimately won by Yarra Valley Grammar and John Monash Science School in a tie for 1st place, and Lowther Hall in 3rd. The Mac.Rob Team should feel proud of their work. They themselves really enjoyed watching all of the videos and, in their own words, "the fruit of our labour".
As an added bonus, the Mac.Rob Team came in 2nd for the People's Choice, and Sarah B came in equal 3rd for the Individual Tie-breaker! Heartfelt congratulations to Sarah on her fine achievement. Sarah said that she really enjoyed the challenge, and has previously won a prize in the "outstanding” category in the Explain the Brain Competition in June this year, for her infographic, "Do Video Games Rot the Brain? A Neuroscience Myth". Sarah is obviously greatly interested in this growing field of Neuroscience!
In a debrief following the event, the Mac.Robbians said that they really liked the whole day, and were delighted to see and hear Mac.Rob alumni Elaine Cheung's inspirational reflections of her involvement in the Brain Bee at the School, State and National levels in 2017, and as an Australian Brain Bee Winner who went on to represent Australia in the International Brain Bee in Berlin in 2018.
Thanks everyone, for your support of this Neuroscience Challenge and the opportunity that it provides to Year 10 students interested in this field.
Ms. Irena Murphy