Shannon-Lanza

[Music plays and photographs flash through of young students]

[An Australian map and text appears: BHP Billiton Foundation Science and Engineering Awards 2018]

[Images move through to show Shannon Lanza wearing gardening gloves, walking towards the camera and crossing her arms]

Shannon Lanza: Hi, I’m Shannon Lanza and I’m in Year 9 at Lyneham High School. 

[Camera zooms in on Shannon’s face as she smiles]

My project was, “Microplastics, A Growing Problem”. 

[Image changes to show Shannon sitting in a garden talking to the camera and then camera zooms in on Shannon’s face]

My project looks at how microplastics affect the germination and growth of radish plants, from a seed to a seedling.

[Images move through of Shannon gardening, talking to the camera and walking towards a horse paddock, talking to the camera and then gardening again]

I’d often drive past the Mugga Lane tip, which is in the ACT. It was like, it is a mountain of rubbish and it had plants growing on it. And I always wondered what made those plants perhaps a little bit different to the plants on the other side of the road in the paddocks and I found that microplastics are being found in agricultural areas and if that poses a threat?

[Music plays and image changes to show Shannon talking to the camera]

I had to find microplastics in the first place, which was a little difficult. 

[Image changes to show Shannon extracting and testing a powder and then looking at the particles under a microscope]

So I decided on trying to extract microbeads from facial scrub because that’s one of the microplastics that are commonly found in sewage sludge, which is then put on agricultural soils. 

[Images move through of Shannon talking to the camera, testing powder in coffee filters in upturned bottles, looking in a microscope, seedlings growing in trays and a close-up view of the seedlings]

I didn’t have any proper equipment, so I used coffee filters. I found out that the seeds that were in the soil that have the most mircoplastics, had more stunted growth. The plants that didn’t have any, grew the best and fared the best. 

[Image changes to show Shannon sitting in the garden and talking to the camera and the camera zooms in on Shannon’s face]

Of course it would need further investigation, but the results of my project beg the question that are our agricultural soils being impacted by these plastics. More and more plastics are being produced every day and the sizes are only getting smaller. 

[Image changes to show Shannon walking towards a horse paddock and then feeding the horses carrots]

So the chance that it will get into agricultural soils is increasing and that is a major hazard and threat to food security.

[Image changes to show Shannon sitting in the garden talking to the camera]

I had no idea, that this, that my project would get this far. And just excited that I get to go travel and meet other young scientists.

[Images move through to show Shannon walking in the garden with a bucket and gloves, pulling out plants under a bush and then sitting in the gardening and talking to the camera]

I enjoy gardening because it’s a way of exploring. I like experimenting with different plants and trying things and seeing how it grows. I love science and engineering, but gardening is a way of exploring that kind of thing.

[Image changes to show Shannon holding up her award in a classroom and then the image changes to show Shannon talking to the camera]

The thing I love about science and engineering is the pursuit of discovery and knowledge and trying to understand the world that we live in.

[Music plays and an Australian map and text appears: BHP Billiton Foundation, Science and Engineering Awards, 2018]