St Joesph’s students grappled with the science behind snake venom, mind control and lie detection this term.
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Science teacher Genevieve Firmer said the Year 10 students had undertaken self directed projects, many working to a university level standard.
“This term they have had the freedom to explore any science topic of their choosing,” Ms Firmer said.
“We found they they have all become really passionate about their projects and I think a big part of that is because they were able to take it in their own direction.
“They are sharing their projects with their parents and they are all really excited and proud of the work they have done,” she said.
Student Anesu Jeche said science was her favourite subject at school.
“I just love it, I want to do anything to do with science or maths when I leave school,” Ms Jeche said.
“My project is about the science of lying. I find why people lie and what is behind those lies really interesting.
“When a person lies there are some behavioral traits which give them away like their voice, heart rate and blood pressure,” she said.
Will Scattini was drawn to poisonous animals and how they affect humans.
“I think toxicology is interesting and considering where we live it is good to know more about it,” Mr Scattini said.
“We have had lots of freedom to focus on whichever topic we wanted. I want to be a forensic pathologist, I find weird, gross stuff interesting.
“My grandfather was a doctor and I want to be able to help people as well. As a forensic pathologist you could find something in someones body then find a way to stop that killing someone else,” he said.
Ianna Lalim was fascinated by blood sucking creatures and their powers of mind control.
“I am doing parasitology which is the study of parasites, and using that to discover mysteries of the brain,” Ms Lalim said.
“For example looking at how mind controlling parasites can enforce their will on another creature.
“One parasite gets into rats and takes away their fear of cats. It does that because it can only reproduce in the stomach of a feline,” she said.
“I want to figure out how thoughts work, it is an under researched field. It is weird that we do so much with the brain but we do not really know how it works.”
