Science Competition winners: Best in Country

Three students from Dr. S. Radhakrishnan International School, Malad West in India won Best in Country for their research into the best way to preserve moringa oleifera – a plant native to India – to maintain its high levels of nutrients.

Aditya Madgavkar, Yuvraj Singh and Ruturaj Jadhav called their investigation ‘Miracle Moringa’ owing to the plant’s highly nutritious leaves that contain a variety of proteins, minerals and vitamins. Their hypothesis was that dried moringa leaves would prove to be a greater concentrated nutrient source than fresh leaves.

They tested this hypothesis by conducting xanthoproteic tests on fresh, sun-dried and air-dried moringa leaves. Xanthoproteic reaction is a method that can be used to detect a presence of protein soluble in a solution, using concentrated nitric acid. The team found that air drying emerged as the preferred method for preserving the nutritional value of moringa leaves, particularly protein content.

Team member Aditya Madgavkar said: 'It was a good exercise for my mind to analyse different perceptions on how to test and validate our stated hypotheses. A really fun experience that taught me how to apply acquired knowledge in day-to-day life scenarios.'

The judges said: 'This was an interesting and well-managed project and the team conveyed the medicinal interest of the moringa tree well, making use of local knowledge. The team took a rigorous approach and judges were impressed by the initial optimisation of the extraction procedure.'

Three students from Singapore National Academy in Indonesia won Best in Country for their research into the effectiveness of different starches in creating bioplastic.

Vanessa Allison Setia, Chloe Junaidi and Zhang Hui Lin tested the effectiveness of five different starches: cassava, corn, arrowroot, rice and tapioca. They tested each starch’s durability, usability, flexibility and ease of creation in order to assess its usefulness as a bioplastic.

To create their bioplastics, the team combined distilled water, white vinegar, glycerol and the different starches. They then heated this mixture and left it to cool and form the plastics.

During their experiments, the team found different starches had different strengths. However, starches with high amylopectin (a water-insoluble polysaccharide and highly branched polymer of α-glucose units), such as rice, tapioca and cassava, were more suitable for bioplastics meant for usage with the expected exposure of water. Rice also had the highest tensile strength, making it more suitable for use in things like disposable cutlery and water bottles.

Team member Vanessa Allison Setia said: 'Participating in this competition was incredibly rewarding and challenging. I learned a lot from the project and had a great time making the bioplastics. This experiment taught me a number of skills, including how to conduct research, write a report and improve communication with my teammates.'

The judges praised the project for being 'systematic and quantitative', highlighting that the team had clearly, 'thought carefully about how their results related to the content of the plastic'.

Four students from The International School of Penang (Uplands) in Malaysia won Best in Country for their research into which desalination method produces the highest and purest yield of water.

The team of Yuqi Chen, Yulin Chen, Zihan Qiu and Entong Chen tested two different types of heat source for their desalination apparatus: gas-powered Bunsen burner and solar (referred to as ‘simple’ and ‘solar’ respectively). Once the water had distilled, they measured the mass of the water produced, before testing the purity by adding it to mung beans and measuring the growth. They also tested tap water, seawater and purified water as a control.

The team found that out of the two different methods of desalination, the mung bean sprouts grew the tallest with the solar, leading them to hypothesise that this method produced the purest water.

Judges commended the team for 'setting out to address a relevant issue for their region and for communities globally'. They continued by saying that the team 'put time and thought into optimising their apparatus and into the cost and long-term sustainability of their solution. Their practical work was carried out carefully and their results were well-presented.'

When asked about their win, the team stated that: 'We wanted to do something affordable and applicable to a daily issue around certain parts of the world. After looking around, we realised that in some countries people often lack clean drinking water, even though oceans border their cities. Looking into this issue, considering factors such as cost, effectiveness and purity we developed several ideas that could solve the issue. Testing them and applying them to real life was both educational and interesting. We had a lot of fun, solving issues we came up with, and taking into account various real-life restrictions kept us interested throughout the investigation.'