rebekah-kang

[Music plays and images of award participants flash by on screen. Text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Image changes to show Rebekah Croydon standing and sketching]

[Image changes to Rebekah standing and smiling at the camera]

Rebekah Croydon: Hi, my name’s Rebekah and I’m in Year 10 at PLC Sydney. My project is titled, Slick & Clean: An investigation into how magnetite can be used with organic sorbent materials in oil spill cleanup.

[Image changes to show Rebekah in a laboratory type setting]

So my investigation looked at finding a safe and effective method of cleaning up oil spills using magnetism. Overall, I found that magnetite has great potential to be used in conjunction with organic sorbent materials, such as human hair, straw and feathers, in the cleanup of oil spills.

[Image changes to show Rebekah with a magnet hovering over a bowl picking up magnetite samples]

I guess, at the start, I was really unsure of how I could source my materials, and especially magnetite, which was a major part of my experiment.

[Image has changed back to show Rebekah seated and talking to the camera]

I guess how I solved this I just did a bit more research and realised that magnetite can be readily accessed in beaches across the world, including in Sydney. So I got some bar magnets from school, I went to a nearby beach, ran the magnets through the sand and I was able to collect quite a substantial amount.

[Image changes to show Rebekah kneeling and running a magnet through sand and bagging the magnetite samples she’s collecting]

I think the main beneficiaries of this research are really the people living in sites that have been affected, or will be affected by oil spills in the future.

[Image changes to show Rebekah straining magnetite samples into a small white dish]

In my spare time I really like to draw.

[Image has changed back to show Rebekah seated and talking to the camera]

I think art and science have a lot in common.

[Image changes to show Rebekah standing and sketching]

 I think they’re both very creative. So I think art, for me, really allows me to express how I feel and what I think about the world around me. It’s really liberating to be able to express how I see and how I think in pictures in a different medium and be able to share that with the people around me.

[Image has changed back to show Rebekah seated and talking to the camera and then playing a violin]

So what I really love about the violin is seeing the little notes on a piece of paper translating into music and also the link that’s drawn between the composer, between myself, the violin and the audience that’s listening.

[Image has changed back to show Rebekah seated and talking to the camera]

I really think that learning science from a young age opened my eyes to seeing science in the world around me.

[Image changes back to show Rebekah holding a magnet and over a bowl of sand and drawing up the magnetite]

In science, everyone needs to work together in order to achieve the best results, and the best results mean that you’re able to help the greatest number of people.

[Image has changed back to show Rebekah seated and talking to the camera]

Even a great scientist like Isaac Newton once said, “That if I’ve seen more, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” And I think that’s really what science is all about.

[Image changes to show Rebekah dropping her violin to her side and smiling at the camera]

[Music plays and text appears: BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017]

[Sponsors logos appear on screen]