Science contest winners to be announced Thursday

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Education and Culture is expected to announce on Thursday the winners of this year's national young scientist contest.

Twenty-five participants completed their research project presentations over the weekend in the competition which is held for students in the 12-19 age group, normally junior and high school students. A sixth-grader, however, is taking part in the contest and expects to win a prize.

"I am not sure which prize but I sure hope that I will win something," Dian Qur'ania Rachmawati, 11, from Yogyakarta told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

A child with an insatiable curiosity, Dian asked her father to conduct joint research with her on jungking, creatures similar to crabs. She believes their excretion has a property to heal jellyfish stings.

She recounted how her mother was once stung by a jellyfish and a passerby told them to find jungking to heal the pain.

"As parents, we can only support our children and supervise them in doing what they really want to do," her father Agus Wahyudi, a junior-high school biology teacher, told the Post.

Usually accompanied by Dian's mother and a younger sister, the father and daughter frequented the Pangandaran beach for four months to conduct their observations and write the report.

"She is only an elementary school student, but a bright one, and I only helped her when she faced difficulties because of her limited knowledge," Agus added.

Dian said she enjoys Indonesian language lessons and hopes to become a medical doctor. She said she preferred reading at home to playing outside with friends.

She cried when she could not answer the questions posed by the panel of judges during her presentation last Thursday. She said she was not feeling very well and that she was disappointed because she had hoped to perform better.

"I told her winning is not important," Agus said.

Astrid Susanto Sunario, a professor of sociology and a judge in the contest, told the Post that she was impressed by Dian's courage in presenting her study.

According to Astrid, the criteria for winners include the contestants' knowledge of the subject matter, authenticity and creativity.

A senior-high school student from Indonesia's easternmost island, Merauke, expected her research, titled "Marind's indigenous people's dependence on nature and reluctance to conduct trade", to bring about changes in her society.

Beatrik Sam Kakay said the natives of Marind are used to nature's abundant provisions and never thought about renewing or conserving the resources. "They are not lazy people, they just don't think about the future as migrant ethnics on our island do," she said, citing the Javanese or Chinese newcomers.

Beatrik said that many of her elders disagreed with her suggestion, saying that conducting business is not part of Marind's tradition.(14)