Excellence and awards
Season of Excellence 2022 begins with Top Talks at State Library Victoria
The Season of Excellence 2022 opened with Top Talks on Friday 4 March. The event was held in person at the Village Roadshow Theatrette at State Library Victoria and also livestreamed from the venue.
Over the course of the event, four students shared their original and rigorous independent research and findings through tenminute presentations.
Following the presentations, a Q&A panel discussion was held with the presenters, giving the audience an opportunity to learn more about the students’ research topics and methods, as well as their experiences of studying VCE Extended Investigation.
There was a range of topics this year, representing very different areas of enquiry. The students were:
- Jenny Zhu, The University High School, speaking on ‘Staphylococcus aureus: Essential oils v. antibiotics’
- Luca Di Lallo, Melbourne High School, exploring his research question ‘Does bilateral training in young water polo athletes increase performance?’
- Sidney Centra, Virtual School Victoria / McKinnon Secondary College, discussing ‘Perfectionism in adolescents’
- Noah Eid, The University High School, with his speech ‘Lettuce drop our pathogenic worries! Comparing eco-fungicide’.
Emma Mildenhall, proud Wurundjeri Woman, opened the event with an incisive Welcome to Country. Monica Bini, Curriculum Manager for Extended Investigation and Philosophy, emceed the event and chaired the Q&A discussion.
Guest speaker and Top Talks alumna Cassie Holford also joined the presenters. Cassie, who studied Extended Investigation in 2014, was awarded the 2020 Monash Faculty of Law Prize of Best Honours Thesis, as well as the Victorian Supreme Court Prize for best Honours Thesis. She gave a powerful speech reflecting on what Extended Investigation meant for her.
‘It’s the only subject where you can grow a seed of an idea into a physical product that you can actually hold in your hands and say, “I wrote this. I wrote this because it was interesting to me, and I worked really hard to do it.” I truly think that is such a rewarding feeling that is unique to this subject.’
Recordings from this event will be available on the
Top Talks page from April.
For more information about Season of Excellence 2022 events and to book your tickets, go to the Season Hub.
From left: Cassie Holford, Sidney Centra, Noah Eid, Jenny Zhu, Luca Di Lallo and Monica Bini at Top Talks 2022