Brittany Walker gathered with Australia’s brightest, scientifically minded girls in December for the Curious Mind Science Camp in Canberra.
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The Ulladulla High School year 11 student was one of 54 girls chosen to be part of a six month program that involves two camps and a project to be completed in between.
The girls were hand picked based on their Australian Big Science Competition results in 2015.
Brittany achieved a near perfect score in the test with just one incorrect answer.
The idea behind the program is to ignite girls passions in the traditionally male dominated fields of science and mathematics.
“It was so fun and jam packed,” Brittany said.
“There were some theory sessions then heaps of pracs,” she said.
The group went on excursions to scientific points of interest in Canberra, such as Questacon and the Mount Stromlo Observatory.
“The Observatory was my favourite part,” Brittany said.
“Everyone I talked to had a PHD,” Brittany said.
“I thought they might be a bit stuck up, but they were so nice,” she said.
The experience allowed her to meet like minded girls and make many new friends.
She also enjoyed meeting Brian Schmidt, who was on the team that discovered the universe’s expansion is accelerating and is now the Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University.
Brittany’s next camp will be in July and in the meantime she plans to get started on her project with mentor Dr Elizabeth New, a chemistry lecturer at the University of Sydney.
While she is not sure if she wants to study science at university, she has chosen Biology, Chemistry and Physics to study for the HSC starting when school goes back next Thursday.