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Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Sixty of the brightest Year 10 students from city and country WA will test their knowledge of the brain when they take part in the WA final of the fourth national Australian Brain Bee Challenge held at The University of Western Australia soon.

The competition , on 20 July, will be opened by Chief Scientist, Professor Lyn Beazley and Miss Uma Jha (Shenton College), last year's national winner, will talk about her success.

The challenge is a quiz about important facts concerning intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movement, stress, ageing, sleep, Alzheimer's disease and stroke.  Participants are asked multiple-choice questions such as: The average human brain loses about what percentage of its weight over a lifetime?

Brain Bee State coordinator Dr Jennifer Rodger said the Brain Bee gave students a great introduction to the fascinating field of neuroscience.

"It also encourages them to explore science in general.  We hope to motivate young people to learn about the brain, maybe capture their imagination and inspire them to pursue careers in biomedical research," Dr Rodger said.

The finalists will be in the running to win a microscope for their schools and individual prizes (provided by UWA). Students will take part in a tour of UWA's neuroscience labs as well as have the opportunity to meet researchers and undergraduates.

Coordinated by the Queensland Brain Institute, part of the University of Queensland, the preliminary round attracted more than 10,000 of Australia's and New Zealand's cleverest high school students.  Those who make it through the WA final will take part in national finals in Auckland in February 2011, with the national winner travelling to the US to compete in the International finals in November 2011.

WA finalists come from the following schools:

  • Goldfields Baptist College (Kalgoorlie),
  • St Mary's Anglican Girls' School,
  • Georgiana Molloy Anglican School (Busselton),
  • Shenton College,
  • Kingsway Christian College,
  • Kalamunda Senior High School,
  • Perth Modern School,
  • Methodist Ladies' College,
  • Roleystone District High School

Media references

Research Assistant Professor Lindy Fitzgerald (+61 8)  6488 2353  /  (+61 8)  9313 2206
(Brain Bee media liaison)
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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