Manurewa High School students upheld the school's reputation for excellence in science at the 2015 NIWA Manukau Science and Technology Fair.  At the fair prize-giving held at Mission Heights Junior College earlier this week, the following students received prizes for their projects:

Timothy Dreadon - 1st place Year 9 to 13 Secondary Consumer Science and Year 11 Best Innovation, Invention or Investigation prize
Timothy's investigation titled “Dehumistify – To Dry or Dehumidify?” compared drying clothes using a dryer compared with using a dehumidifier. Timothy worked out which was the cheaper option and discussed other issues associated with drying clothes indoors.

Tessa Dreadon - Highly Commended - Year 10 Year 7 to 13 Scientific Photography
Tessa's scientific photos of threatened and endangered zoo animals, titled “Precious Resources – Endangered and Threatened Animals”, was accompanied by an essay explaining why the animals are threatened, and how we can help save them.

Manisha Paliwai - 2nd Place - Year 11–13 Senior Science
Manisha's “Five fats Fight it Out” investigation compared five different cooking fats from various international cuisines, to determine the most healthy fat in terms of rancidity, how fast they oxidized, melting point, saturation and chain length. She found that clarified butter (ghee) commonly used in India was by far the most healthy to cook with in that it had a very high smoke point and was far less prone to developing free radicals due to rancidity.

Aimen Sana - Third equal, Winner of the DairyNZ Award and Year 12 Best Innovation, Invention or Investigation
“Garlic: To Wait or Not!”.  Aimen’s project looked at whether or not crushed garlic ought to be left to ‘sit’ before being added to the cooking pot. After experimenting with crushed garlic and a range of ‘sitting times’ Aimen found that the ideal wait time before adding garlic to the pot was 10 minutes. At that time the anti-microbial properties of the garlic would peak and hence cooking before or after the ideal sitting time would diminish the efficacy of the anti-microbial compounds in the food.

Prabhjot Kaur - Best Application of the Scientific Method (winner receives a week at Otago University in January for a week of “Hands on Science”)
“Long Live Lactase”.  Prabhjot investigated whether regular milk could be made lactose free by buying just 1 litre of lactose free milk. By inoculating regular milk with various volumes of lactose free milk, she found that the active enzyme was still able to function in the regular milk and hence, after 3 days, would turn the milk into lactose free. This would save money for people who need to drink lactose free milk but find it too expensive.

Sidrick Salting, Amber ‘Inia and Simran Naicker received Participation certificates.

The projects will be on display in our Science cabinet in the Science Hallway.