In 2019, Wonder of Science returned to Cairns for the first time since 2017. Over 275 Year 7 - 9 students from two schools (Smithfield State High School and Innisfail State College) participated in term long STEM inquiry tasks ranging from taxonomic identification of bugs to understanding chemical energy transfer. Recently 40 students were selected to represent their schools the 2019 Wonder of Science Regional Conference at Jame Cook University in Cairns. This conference was the last of eleven regional conference held by Wonder of Science this year.

At the conference, teams of students presented the results of their research projects. We saw amazing presentations from our Year 7 - 9 teams with some students launching makeshift rockets, calling members of the audience to participate in live demonstrations of chemistry experiments and even presenting their work entirely without notes or palm cards with confidence rivalling that of University students.

Students also participated in Chemistry Workshops run by YSA Joshua Davis and a Q and A session run by our Young Science Ambassadors Soi Law, Felix Egger and Sachini Fonseka. JCU Young Science Ambassador Maria Rivera Araya also assisted with judging on the day.

Congratulations to the winning teams:

Year 7 - Innisfail State College

Year 8 - Innisfail State College

Year 9 - Smithfield State High School

The quality of presentations on the day was astounding from all teams. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the day.

We look forward to welcoming the Cairns winning teams to State Conference in Brisbane on November 29 at QUT!