The students’ research conference
What type of mindset is needed in research?
Pymble’s second Student Research Conference was held in May with two keynote speakers and fourteen student presenters. The conference theme, Mindsets in Research, was designed by student convenor, Lucy Clark (Year 12). It invited participants to consider ways to cultivate the type of mindset needed for research and how to build skills to support it. We saw many examples of curiosity, clear thinking and problem solving across the conference. In addition to the speakers, we were honoured to share the afternoon with an enthusiastic and supportive audience of students, parents and teachers.
Student led
Year 12 student, Lucy Clark, organised the conference after successfully co-running the inaugural student research conference in 2022. Lucy strongly believes in the benefit of giving a voice to students to showcase their work. Over the past three years, Lucy has made a significant contribution to developing an inclusive community of student researchers at the College. A team of younger students assisted Lucy by facilitating each room and managing question time at the end of each presentation.
Role models and keynote speakers
Professor Fiona White, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sydney, and Natalie Dajkovich, ex-Pymble student and Senior Policy Officer in International Climate Negotiations and Engagement with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, were inspirational role models as they explained the principles of research design. They both shared their personal passions for their respective fields and explained how they meet the demands of their work with steady persistence and creative ideas.
Conference themes
Professor Fiona White spoke about researching tricky topics and drew on her experience in her research area of race, diversity and inclusion. Fiona explained how fundamental principles in ethics, confidentiality and safety for participants and researchers are built into research design and how complex human questions can be explored through inquisitive, caring and respectful frameworks.
Natalie Dajkovich shared her journey from Pymble to the Australian National University, and onto her role as Senior Policy Officer with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water with the Australian Government. Natalie outlined how she designed and conducted her research into processes of carbon pricing and explained the methodologies she employed to research this complex field.
Fiona and Natalie spoke with such passion for research, but brought to life ways that research can make an impact on public policy and shape the lives of everyday citizens.
Following the panel discussion, hosted by Erika (Year 10) and Lucy, participants moved to breakout rooms to listen to student presentations. Find details of the full program here.
Pymble’s student researchers and topics
Students generously shared their research in 15-minute sessions. They took questions and spoke confidently about their findings and opportunities for future research. We look forward to following the careers of the following young researchers!
Year 7
Leahara Wijesuriya, Alexa Wu, Celine Cai – Online communications and how it has evolved
Ariana Azizmohammad – An abstract summary of why we yawn
Year 9
Kitty He – The future of space appropriation and Kessler Syndrome
Alice Mao – Overcoming bias in AI: Strategies for equality
Year 10
Catherine Shi – What makes Shakespeare ‘Shakespeare’?
Year 11
Julie Sheng – What is the ideal form of government?
Yuki Wang – Stock market returns of COVID-19 vaccine companies
Year 12
Sumeera Chapra – Impact of reducing adolescent screen time with greyscale
Manni Lin – Correlation between temperature and the sound level of boiling water
Becca Peters – Utilising a prompt to form a habit
Christy Xue – An economic evaluation on Pymble‘s canteen “shadow market”
