Click here to view article on Massey University site (07/08/2008)
The effects of energy drinks on sports performance, whether left-handed batsmen are better and if Olympic athletes live longer than the average person were among the diverse topics researched by secondary school pupils who attended a school sport symposium at the Auckland campus this week.
About 90 pupils from seven mostly North Shore schools attended the symposium on Monday. Organised by the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health’s Sport and Exercise Science division, it is designed to give potential students an opportunity to apply scholarly prowess to sport, wellness and health themes, and also to compete for bursaries worth a total of $12,000 for sports-related studies at the University.
They worked individually and in pairs to prepare their research projects, which were displayed in the Recreation Centre. Awards included six bursaries valued at $3000, $2000 and $1000, with three for degrees in Sport and Exercise study and three for Sport Business Management study with the College of Business.
Julia Buhs-Catterall, from KingsWay School in Orewa, won the $3000 bursary for the year-13 sport and exercise science project. Sam Hanna, from Rosmini School, Takapuna, won a $2000 bursary and Rebecca Watkin, from KingsWay, won $1000.
For year-13 sport management: Laura Griffin and Rosalind McNeil of Long Bay College ($3000), Aleisha Westerdal of KingsWay School ($2000) and Layce Pereira of KingsWay ($1000).
Years 10, 11 and 12 students were awarded prizes including an iPod nano, iPod shuffle and sports packs for the best three projects for each year.
Special prizes were also given for the best injury prevention project (Ms Griffin and Ms McNeil), for best original research project (Vuk Stanojevic of Rosmini) and best presentation (Ms Westerdal).
Other schools involved were Glenfield College, Pinehurst School and Kristin School from North Shore and Selwyn College in Auckland City.
