TWO students from Camborne Science & International Academy (CSIA) were nominated for ‘Best Research Project’ at the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) Awards.

The IRIS Awards recognise bright young researchers, the teachers who support them.  They are held annually by IRIS, a charity which provides opportunities for young people to participate in cutting-edge STEM research and collaborate with leading universities and institutions while still at school.

Noah and Jack, both in Year 13, were nominated for their project which was about using satellite data to track the size and movement of penguin colonies in Antarctica. In the end they boys were highly commended in the ‘Best Research Project’ category, placing in the top three. They got to attend the award ceremony in London, where they also found time to visit the National History Museum.

All Year 12 students at CSIA undertake a research project as part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) pathway the school offers. Noah and Jack participated in one of IRIS’s Earth Observation projects where they can use satellite data to research things like lava flow from volcanoes, deforestation or populations of some species like penguins. 

As part of their research, the boys had a video call with Peter Fretwell a Geospatial scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. He was able to show them how they found twelve new colonies of penguins using the new satellite method. He also suggested some possible questions they could ask as part of their project. 

The duo decided to look for these newly discovered populations, now three years later, to see if they were still there. They managed to look at two colonies and found an initial increase in population size between 2018 and 2019 and then a drastic decrease in population size from 2020 to 2023. They also found a lack of sea ice in later years, this is concerning as penguins need sea ice to breed.

Emma Haase, principal of Camborne Science and International Academy said: “Everyone at CSIA is so proud of Noah and Jack, they did extraordinarily well to get through to the final three research projects at the IRIS Awards.