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Issue 51 – October 2014 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
S
onesavanh’s story was about a girl who wrote a letter to her younger sister. She explains,
“Through the letter, she tells her sister about these beings that come every year to
capture members within her family. The girl writing the letter is about to be taken by
these ‘beings’ and she writes the letter to warn her sister.”
Sonesavanh, who started Queen Margaret College in Year 9, not only enjoys writing but
also reading. Her favourite series is Harry Potter. Now in Year 10 Sonesavanh is currently
taking French, Chinese and Music as her options. Sonesavanh aspires to become a doctor
in the future, however right now she is looking forward to the Year 11 Abel Tasman Trek
next year.
SonesavanhPhouphaylywas awardedfirst place in the Junior Prose
section of the 2014 Secondary School Writing Competition.
First in Junior Prose
Science Fair Winners 2014
At this year’s NIWA Science Fair top honours went to Therese
Featherston, placed First in Class 5 (Year 11 – 13), nominated
for
Realise the Dream
and winner of the
VUW Faculty of Sci-
ence Innovation Prize
.
A
shley Chandra was also awarded a number of prizes in Class 2 (Year 8) including
the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Education Prize, VUW School of
Chemical and Physical Sciences Prize and Measurement Standards Laboratory -
Callaghan Innovation Prize.
The list of Queen Margaret College girls to be congratulated is extensive, as viewed
below:
• Ruby Brandwood and Olivia Hawker: (Class 2) Geoscience Society of NZ
• Kate Twomey and Millie Wilcox: (Class 2) OPUS International Consultants Prize
• Franziska Plimmer: Highly Commended Class 5
• Lucy Poole: Highly Commended Class 2
• Bianca Bryan; Sabrina Kao; Kate Macrae; Antonina Smolnicki: First in Special 50th
Celebration James Duncan Futures Prize
• Diana Brouwer; Peri Jefferies; Olivia Kelly; Jemma Smith: Highly Commended in
Special 50th Celebration James Duncan Futures Prize
• Samantha Devane; Priya Prema; Kirsty Simpson; Luisa Zeilinger; Emily Zhou:
Highly Commended in Special 50th Celebration James Duncan Futures Prize
Therese Featherston:
The Matter of GATA
Ashley Chandra:
Zooming Up!
Chamber of Clouds
I
l
ooked at background radiation proving
that it exists in our atmosphere and that
we are encountering it throughout our
daily lives through an apparatus called a
cloud chamber. The background radiation
was shown through vertical, horizontal
and slant tracks and I measured how many
appeared at four different altitudes. This
resulted in a relevant and concise conclusion
stating that the higher the altitude the more
background radiation was present in the
atmosphere because of the exposure to
cosmic rays.
M
y project was based on
strawberry
birthmarks,
a
common tumour of infants.
I was looking at whether GATA-1, an
important transcription factor in red
blood cell production, was expressed in
the cells of the strawberry birthmarks. My
investigation concluded that GATA-1 was
expressed in these cells, therefore meaning
that the strawberry birthmark tissue could
potentially be used to grow red blood cells.
The significance of GATA-1’s expression
is the exciting part of the project! Due to
this discovery, the use of blood transfusion
from human to human could potentially
no longer be needed, eliminating the risk
of disease transmission. Instead, blood
will potentially be able to be grown within
the cells of a strawberry birthmark, and
therefore we can make the blood needed for
blood transfusions.
