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Monday, 11 June 2018

More than 90 of WA’s brightest Year 10 students from 20 schools across the State competed in the WA Brain Bee championships last Friday at The University of Western Australia.

Mount Lawley Senior High School student Nathan Mayhew was crowned the State champion and Woodthorpe School was announced the winning WA school.

The Australian Brain Bee Challenge is the country’s only neuroscience competition for high school students. It is designed to test students’ knowledge of neuroscience and associated conditions and diseases of the brain as well as engage with students who may be interested in pursuing neuroscience as a career.

The students also toured UWA and met some of the University’s leading scientific researchers.

State champion Nathan Mayhew said the hard work studying for the competition had paid off.

“I put every hour in that I could in the last week to prepare,” he said. “I think neuroscience is really interesting. It’s cool how it explains the brain and tells us things that we wouldn’t normally think about how they work.

“The more I find out about neuroscience the more I am considering it as a career. It was also interesting to tour UWA. We got to look at things under the microscope and hold models of brains and heads.”

UWA Senior Research Fellow Associate Professor Jenny Rodger who has led the competition for 11 years said it was exciting to host the Brain Bee WA finals again this year.

”The students are among the brightest in the State and always impress us with their extensive knowledge of the brain, and passion for learning,” Professor Rodger said.

Mr Mayhew will go on to compete against winners from the other Australian states and territories in the national final to be held in Brisbane in December.

The Brain Bee event was made possible through the support of the Perron Institute.

Media references

Jess Reid (UWA Media and Public Relations Advisor)     (+61 8) 6488 6876

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