Sophia and four of her classmates made it to the Final of the Brain Bee Competition which is held each year in Auckland, at the Centre of Brain Research. To qualify they had come in the top 2% in New Zealand in Round 1 of the competition. Brains obviously run in the family!
I took them in to the University for the day and it all began with the individual competition which was intense! There were 38 competing schools, some of whom had travelled from Wellington that morning and you could feel the competitive edge in the room.
This was followed by tours around the labs, lectures by neuro scientists, looking at bionic ears, analysing DNA and looking at actual brains (one of the teachers thought it was a model and picked it up!)
We came in the top 10, but sadly didn't win the challenge - I think Sophia would make a excellent neuro surgeon, so I made friends with the professor in charge and we're going back for a private tour of all their 'brain' stuff for her..
The four of them are talking about being mentors for next year's team!
