Geography Competition winners
Merewether High student Georgia Austin takes out prize
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Comment: Maree Campbell - Ph: 02 4969 4566
2010 School Geography Competition winners
Merewether High School Year 11 student Georgia Austin has been awarded this year’s Hunter Valley Research Foundation School Geography Competition.
Georgia’s project documented weed species on her parents’ Four Mile Creek property and suggested strategies for managing them. She received her prizes during an assembly at her school, Merewether High School, yesterday. Georgia said her interest in her project began when she was in primary school.
“Steve O’Mara from East Maitland Primary School involved me in the Life Skills program, which encouraged kids to earn money by collecting pest species, including nagur burrs and gambusia (introduced mosquito fish),” she said.
Georgia intends to study Geography for her Higher School Certificate and would love to be a physio-therapist.
The competition, now in its 23rd year, is open to Year 11 students from government and non-government high schools throughout the Hunter Region. It aims to encourage and recognise excellence in school education with particular emphasis on the study of geography. Teagan Lang from Great Lakes College was highly commended by the Foundation for her project on the redevelopment of Stocklands Forster.
- Winner: Georgia Austin, Merewether High School - “Weeds and their management in Willow Park”
- Highly Commended: Teagan Lang, Great Lakes College - “The redevelopment of Stocklands Forster”
Georgia received $300 prize money, as well as a framed certificate, a year’s subscription to Australian Geographic Magazine, an offer to complete two weeks of work experience at the HVRF, and will have her project posted on the HVRF website. Her school received $500 for the purchase of books in the social science field for their library. Both students will have their projects published by the Foundation and circulated to all Hunter Region schools.
ENDS