During the online component of the NYSF Year 12 Program this year, Cosmos and the team at the Royal Institute of Australia (RiAus) challenged NYSFers to develop a short script for a podcast on a STEM topic of their choice. They received 31 outstanding submissions that covered a broad range of incredibly interesting and unique STEM topics.
Jacinta Bowler, Science Journalist for The Royal Institution of Australia, commended participating students on the quality of their submissions and spoke to the excitement their ideas generated in the team at Cosmos.
“It was really cool to have read all your submissions. They were all so wonderful, the topics were so great... So for this, I just wanted to say congratulations to everybody. Everybody did really well, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next. We really, really enjoyed spending time with all of you... We could have done that every day for a week. We had a great time, you’re all incredible young people.”
Editors of Cosmos, Gail MacCallum and Ian Connellan, also celebrated the students for the quality of their ideas.
“What was so impressive about the entries you guys put in was the extremely sharp and terrific diversity of ideas...As we went through them we kept saying, ‘Oh that’s a good idea, Oh that’s a good idea, we could use that one'."
Cosmos and the team at the Royal Institute of Australia (RiAus) were so impressed, that they offered participants the opportunity to receive editorial feedback on their work and to record their podcast as part of a new series: Podcast Next Gen.
Here are the Cosmos episodes of the collaborative series with NYSF alumni so far:
- How do we deal with our disposable vape problem? - Amy
- How does Singapore manage waste differently? - David
- Why do we feel hot? - Dorothea
- How does quantum entanglement work? - Saskia
- What's the science behind dyed hair? - Makaela
- How sustainable are electric cars? - Sascha
- What exactly is a snowflake? - Hannah
- What's the science of the Bermuda Triangle? - Angie
- Can we make the best scrambled eggs with science? - Lina
- Why are magpies so lovely? - Elizabeth
- Why do so many people believe in conspiracy theories? - Vishnu
- What's the science of skeletons? - Sarah
- How does sound work? - Zeph
- Can kelp save the world? - Sophie
- Put simply, what is climate change? - Maya
- Why does spicy food feel hot? - Stephanie
- What's the best music to study to? - Jorja
- What's the science behind the aurora? - Hajara
- Is there poetry in maths? - Matilda
- How important are marine microbes? - Emelia
New episodes of Podcast Next Gen are released every Friday. With many more episodes to come, watch this space to see more of the fantastic work our 2023 NYSF alumni have done.