Karratha student’s work bound for world stage in Beijing

Karratha Senior High School student Oscar Loveday has booked his place at an international youth science event after winning annual competition Beijing Bound last week.

The Year 10 student will travel to China in March to present his project investigating the impact of acidity on marine life off the Pilbara coast at the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition, a huge school science tournament that this year attracted more than 2000 entries from around the world.

Oscar said his project had found marine life was “very vulnerable” to rising ocean acidity caused by shipping, but with stricter regulations “a lot of the damage could be averted”.

“A lot of my life and interests surround the beach,” he said.

“I live very close to it, it’s something I hold very close to my heart, and I’ve always been worried about what might happen to it in the future, so I decided to research into it and its impacts and what can be done to preserve our ecosystems.

“Winning this is a very big accomplishment for me and I’m really excited to go to Beijing to showcase what I’ve found.”

Beijing Bound, which is run by Scitech and Rio Tinto, offers Karratha Year 10 students the opportunity to develop an original scientific research project under the guidance of industry mentors, with the winner gaining the chance to present their work internationally at the BYSCC.

St Luke’s College students Arlen Grainger and Shaswat Senger also entered the program this year.

Scitech STEM careers co-ordinator Erin Kelly said all the entrants had researched local issues concerning the environment and sustainability.

“It is really promising and exciting that students are engaging in local issues and using STEM principles and research to start having a closer look at what they can personally do at an individual level to address them,” she said.

Busselton Senior High School student Chloe Rogers, who won the Busselton division of Beijing Bound last week, will also travel to China for the competition.