HSC Science Extension Research Project
Students from the Year 12 Science Extension class have now submitted their Major Research Projects to National Education Standards Authority (NESA). Students were required to select a research topic at the beginning of the year, assisted by industry and university mentors as they conducted their investigation. The information gathered, along with a descriptive statistical analysis, was then fashioned into 3500 word report, to the standard of a scientific journal article. Our four students investigated the following research questions: “Does Social Media Influence Metal Health Illness?”, “Mental Health in Women Experiencing Preterm Birth – What is the impact of preterm birth on maternal well-being?”, “Causes of Colour Vision Deficiency” and “The Effects of alcohol on Cognitive Function”. Although a difficult endeavour, the currency and standard of the student work was excellent. The reports will be published on the NESA website for perpetuity, recognising students’ achivement and helping seed future students’ own research ideas. We are excited to be offering this excellent subject again in 2020, helping our gifted students to begin to interact with the scientific community, and to extend themselves while engaging with current research.
An excerpt from one of a student, Bailey Storey’s, report in reference to social impacts of Instagram collected from a survey in 2018 “Does Social Media Influence Metal Health Illness?”
“Instagram: From the graph we can see that Instagram had a smaller Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) rate compared to Snapchat, however body image proved to be rather high in the negatives at -.75. Instagram appears to be playing a negative role in people’s ability to sleep after using Instagram as it was rated the lowest aspect, being at approximately -1. Self expression appears to be the highest positive score being at almost 1, however most aspects of mental health including Anxiety, Depression, Sleep, Body Image and FOMO all appeared in the negatives. Overall, Instagram proved to be having a negative affect on aspects of mental health to participants. (Royal Society of Public Health, 2019)”
