During National Science Week, held in August 2021, students in Years 7-10 had an opportunity to enter the Great Barrier Reef “Virtual Reef Diver” Citizen Scientists initiative. The competition was organised by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
Students needed to apply their scientific skills to classify images of the Great Barrier Reef. They completed an induction program, and then identified hard coral, soft coral, sand, algae, and fish coverage in each photo. Photos are checked by researchers from QUT for verification.
Participants entered from all over Australia and during science week over 55,000 images had been classified. This helps researchers classify hard coral and contribute to the dataset used to monitor the Reef. This dataset is then used in statistical modelling to predict the health of the Great Barrier Reef across its 4,000 reefs.
Participants classify photos of the reef and are ranked by score, according to classification accuracy, difficulty, and the number of classifications.
St Gregory’s College was announced 1st Prize Winning Interstate School Team.
Congratulations to the 109 boys who entered the competition. Based on the scores awarded, 24 reached ‘expert’ level researcher and 25 attained ‘experienced’ level researcher. These students are listed in their rank order below.
The top four students from St Gregory’s College:
· 1st Isaac Sykes Year 9
· 2nd Domenico Cocco Year 8
· 3rd Nicholas Hagipantelis Year 7
· 4th Zachary Gacevic Year10
| Citizen Scientist Reef Classification Ability Level Attained | |||
| Expert Level | Year Group | Experienced Level | Year Group |
| Isaac Sykes | 9 | Kai Allie | 8 |
| Domenico Cocco | 8 | Lachlan Suffell | 9 |
| Nicholas Hagipantelis | 7 | Joshua Adams | 8 |
| Zachary Gacevic | 10 | Jacob Mizzi | 9 |
| Brayden Murray | 9 | Killian McNamara | 8 |
| Jackson Isedale | 8 | Tom Dzevlan | 8 |
| Leon-Alexander Ari | 9 | Marcus McGuinness | 9 |
| Oliver Tannous | 8 | Gene Wighton | 9 |
| Lucas Di Fazio | 8 | Jacob Pace | 8 |
| Christian Anjos | 9 | Bradley MacRitchie | 9 |
| Samuel Martyn | 9 | Ryan Elliott | 9 |
| Hunter Redman | 8 | Vince Vaccaro | 9 |
| Nicholas Vinter | 9 | Oliver Langston | 8 |
| William Degeling | 8 | Joshua O’Dwyer | 9 |
| Fergus Mullen | 10 | Andrew Nothdurfter | 8 |
| Connor Keating | 7 | Mason Hunter | 9 |
| Joshua Latta | 9 | Ethan Antala | 8 |
| Lachlan Fraser | 9 | Jason Lee | 8 |
| Phinnean Bracken | 8 | Connor Norris | 8 |
| Darcy Weston | 9 | Zane Weston | 7 |
| Jaxson Smith | 8 | Charlie Tipping | 9 |
| Connor Dean | 9 | Alexander Goodsell | 8 |
| Cooper Scott | 9 | Bailey Johnson | 10 |
| Dylan Wulff | 8 | ||
On September 10 Queensland’s Chief Scientist hosted a celebratory event to recognise participants and prize winners. St Gregory’s College was specifically congratulated for its impressive participation, contribution, and success, winning the top interstate school prize.
St Gregory’s College was awarded Prizes including a 12-month subscription to MathsCraft Curriculum for a class group, Virtual Reef Diver card game and a Wondrous Worlds book by Katie Bucchorn.
Congratulations to all the students who participated, enabling the College to win the interstate category. Thank you to the Science teachers who encouraged the participation, contribution, and skill development amongst the boys.
Mr John Dinnen
Leader of Learning Science