Medical Advances Project 2012

How does the brain deal with emotions? What is bionics? Can your diet improve your eyesight? And just how healthy are Brampton College’s teeth? These questions are just some of those which formed the basis of research on Medical Advances by our AS science, maths and economics students this summer, building on the success of the Drugs Discovery project last year. These cross-curricular research initiatives bring out skills and talents that we don’t necessarily see in the day-to-day classroom experience. Teachers have been impressed by the enthusiasm, organizational skills, leadership potential and teamworking talents of many of the students – increasingly in-demand qualities that we will be commenting on in students’ university applications in September. “It was great to see the students in a different setting working so well together”, commented chemistry teacher and project co-ordinator Kerry Bromley. After an initial session with their mentors, students set to work on a range of investigative experiments – from the measurement of the actual iron content in iron tablets, whose virtues we hear so much about, and of the effectiveness of a variety of disinfectants in eliminating harmful bacteria, to the testing of acid concentrations in various popular fizzy drinks. The project culminated in a presentation morning complete with judging panel and prizes on offer for the best overall project, best oral presentation and best poster presentation. Themes ranged from Cardiology and improvements in the use of x-rays to more political questions such as ‘Should smoking be banned entirely?’ to the purely scientific ‘What is Huntington’s Disease?’ Individual awards for presentations were made to Dhrumi and Karan, and there was fierce competition between the top three groups for the overall prize. In the end, however, head of the judging panel Joy Mason announced that the project on contraception by Andrew, Jay, Gopi Max, Urvi and Temisan was the winner. Very well done to all those who took part!