Rangi Ruru Big Brain Bee Winners

Four Year 11 Rangi girls have taken out the 2015 South Island Brain Bee Challenge held in Dunedin on Tuesday.

The Brain Bee Challenge is a competition for high school students where they learn about the brain and its functions, neuroscience research, find out about careers in neuroscience and work to dispel misconceptions about neurological and mental illnesses.

The girls first had to qualify for South Island competition by achieving highly in a multi-choice test. Preparation for the competition required them to read a 96 page textbook about the brain. The competition had multiple rounds of questions based on the textbook.

After qualifiying, Rangi’s Marisol Hunter, Ashleigh Goh, Francesca Beaton and Isabella Gregory competed in both a team and individual competition against schools from all over the South Island. They then went on to take 1st place in the teams event, winning individual prizes, a trophy, and a prize package for the school valued at more than $1600.

Ashleigh and Marisol both made the individual final with 5 other students. In a highly stressful final round, Ashleigh placed 5th and Marisol 2nd. Marisol won a trophy, cash prize and a week’s Science camp at Otago University in the summer holidays. The individual winners from the South and North Islands will head to Australia to represent New Zealand.