Brain Bees Buzz to UNSW

What gives people their buzz? For some, it’s screaming their lungs out on a rollercoaster at Disneyland. For others, it’s bungee-diving off a 10-metre cliff. For us on the last day of Term 2, it was making our way in unrepressed excitement through the neatly manicured lawns of the University of New South Wales to take part in the state finals of the annual Australian Brain Bee Challenge.  This is a neuroscience competition for Year 10 students from schools across the nation.

We had first heard about this opportunity from Dr Bunny earlier in the year, and the three of us were thrilled. We did not want to miss any opportunity to learn more about the way our minds work and the intricacies surrounding every decision we made – including our decision to sign up for the competition immediately! Since we didn’t have much experience with neuroscience before, we had to study intensively on Education Perfect during the holidays, committing fascinating brain facts and mind-bogglingly long Latin words to memory.

Finally, on a warm evening after school, we sat down and chugged through a quiz. All the questions were multiple choice, and going through them made us truly appreciate the extent of our brains (no pun intended)

We waited for our results for the duration of the next holidays and the majority of the term after that… and nothing. But then all of a sudden, as the looming darkness known as “Assessment Block” was creeping up upon us, we got an email.

“Congratulations Julie Sheng, Carly Yiu and Grace Ho! You have progressed to the state final round of the Brain Bee Competition. Come to UNSW on the last day of term to participate in Round 2!”

Well we couldn’t miss such an opportunity. Even if it meant cramming the new content into 3 days.

We felt like we experienced a good portion of the content covered by university neuroscience students, who are actually studying at UNSW! To be frank, it felt less like we were obligated to memorise these things like we were in class, and more like we were gaining valuable insights into the mechanisms of our brain and body.

We covered everything from sleep and circadian rhythms, to the anatomy and roles of neurons and neurotransmitters, to the parts and functions of the spinal cord, to the diseases of the nervous system and disorders such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. We learnt down to the individual parts of a cell, and how the dozens of areas inside the brain related to each of these topics. It almost felt too good to be true!

Finally, the day came for our trip to test how much of that we could recall at Brain Bee’s Round 2 at UNSW. We met at the ‘Pymble Girl’ statue and rode a taxi, enjoying the warm sunlight and the splendid views across the Harbour Bridge. We made it to the entrance of their ultra-chic medicine building.

After getting our names signed off, we received some complementary gifts inside our very own UNSW gift bags!

There were a few amazing things about the day that we’re going to talk about, and we are tempted to say the best part was the free food they supplied (it was true ‘gourmet’, and we definitely didn’t steal a box of brownies before we left).  In hindsight, however, it was the competition itself – competing against each other in the individual rounds, watching people our age battle it out with friendly feuding in the team rounds and having one of us – Julie Sheng, make it to the final top 10 round – that made it a rare, unique and irreplaceable experience (the state-of-the-art computer labs weren’t bad either!).

Along with the competition, the activities the UNSW team prepared for us were equally unforgettable: the tour of the Museum of Disease, the physiology classes, the lunchtime exhibit and the guest speakers.

Inside the Museum of Disease, there were thousands of displays of different body parts, each donated by a selfless person who wished to make a contribution in the field of medical research. Next to some of the displays, there were case studies relating to the donor’s background story. Of the more memorable ones was a man’s diseased lung, which had swollen up to the average person’s entire torso size. We’re not going to sugarcoat things – some of the exhibits were quite confronting. However, we appreciated the sombre tone inside the museum which reflected our respect for the medical donors. One can only imagine the advancements that they made to research at the university, as well as their role in fuelling the motivations and achievements of current and future doctors!

As well as the museum visit, we also attended a physiology class where a leading neuroscience doctor taught us how to ‘trick’ our brain into seeing or feeling an illusion (very useful for sibling pranks, by the way). There was also a lunchtime exhibit from a PhD student where we got to try on funky glasses that inverted our vision, allowing us to gain a glimpse (another pun!) of how our eyes actually see before us. That was certainly an eye-opening experience (okay, we’ll stop!).

After a morning of tours and presentations, it came to the time in the afternoon where the top 10 contestants in the state would be announced.

They read them one at a time. Number 1, number 2, 3, 4… number 9… and still none of us three had been called up. As we were preparing to accept our fate, we heard a familiar name.

“Julie Sheng from Pymble Ladies’ College!”

Making it to the top 10 was sure no easy feat. Out of the dozens of students there, each one equally clever, having undoubtedly spent hours each day absorbing all the neuroscience they possibly could, only 10 made it to the final round, and Julie was one of them. It was an intense final round, with all but three of the finalists finishing with a score of 5, including Julie. 

Of those remaining, another battle was fought between a James Ruse student, and two from Sydney Girls’. After quite a few tiebreaker rounds (the pair from Sydney Girls’ were suspiciously in sync), we finally hailed a winner.

The fact that we did not make it to nationals was not that important – it was the experience that mattered. After all the content we learned about how our brains and bodies work, and the incredible exhibits and activities we saw on the day, we couldn’t ask for more.

We would like to really genuinely thank the High-Potential Learning Co-ordinator, Mrs Tarrant, for clearing her whole day, accompanying the three of us all the way to UNSW, and taking us back in the evening. We would also really like to thank Dr Bunny, who organised this experience including all the paperwork, consent forms and learning resources, which undoubtedly would have taken much time and effort. This would not have been possible without their help. 

On a final note, we would like to say that we highly recommend anyone who has not yet been through Year 10, and who has even a little bit of interest in STEM, neuroscience or biology to give this a go. Although we desperately wish it isn’t the case, we can’t do this again next year, since it is only open to those in Year 10, so don’t wait! We signed up through a portal notice, totally unaware that we would learn so much valuable information and have so much fun.

We hope Pymble students will surpass our achievements in the years to come, and make it to the Nationals, or even the Internationals! It is definitely possible! And we wish many more people will sign up for these kinds of opportunities in the future, and have the experience that we did on that day, which was just as incredibly fun as it was insightful and educational. You certainly don’t have to be super smart or naturally good at science – you just need to be open-minded, interested and willing to put in the effort.

Written by Julie Sheng (Year 10), Grace Ho (Year 10) and Carly Yiu (Year 10)