Warilla High School students Kate Cudina, Matthew Erlik and Nicholas Twigg will sit for the first online HSC exam this year.
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The trio are also part of a select cohort of year 12 students around NSW undertaking the HSC Science Extension course.
Two students from Corrimal and Wollongong, as well as one Smiths Hill High School student has also done the course, which has been offered for the first time in 2019.
Those students who chose to do the HSC Science Extension course also had the option of studying up to seven units of science for the first time.
The focus of the new course meant students had to undertake a scientific research project in association with Australian and international researchers, universities and research institutions.
Projects could also involve partnering with industry to pursue a research idea that has commercial application.
Warilla High student Matthew Erlik said the course was really fun.
He particularly enjoyed working on his project - 'Ultraviolence: BRM protein deficiency increases skin cancer risk from sunlight'.
"The course itself is great because for the first time we were learning skills which we normally wouldn't learn about until uni," Erlik said.
"It definitely creates that bridge between uni and high school."
Erlik was especially happy with how well his project was received by teachers and exam markers.
"I did really well and really enjoyed the process to come up with the findings," he said.
"The protein you have in your skin is part of when your cells divide and make new healthy cells. Through the data I collected and found, when people didn't have this protein and if they went out into the sun or were hit by ultraviolet light, the normal cells were damaged by it.
"When these cells didn't have the protein the cells would skip a phase and the damaged cells would continue to grow at a faster rate. It would cause cancer cells to grow."
Fellow Warilla student Nicholas Twigg said having a mentor on hand to work on his project was especially helpful.
"I was pretty lucky to get Lily Hospers from the University of New South Wales. She really guided me down that path of how I should really go about the report, collecting the data, manipulating the data and all sorts of stuff," he said.
Twigg's project was called 'SSRI and SNRI: which antidepressant should be used as a first line treatment for patients with depression and/or anxiety'.
"I found that regardless of which option people chose, the medication takes awhile to work," he said.
"SSRI's [Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] are more common but SNRI's [serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors] are more dangerous.
'I found it worked for some people but others had to switch from medication to medication.
"This made me think why can't cant they just prescribe a different type that is going to work more effectively than the other because the SNRI's are more dangerous however they are more stronger than SSRI's."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
