Katarina in Year 12 won second prize in the senior section of Tonbridge School’s Science Communication competition with her talk on ‘Saving our night sky from the effects of light pollution’.
The competition saw entries from more than 100 students, with 22 making it through to the grand final.
This is Katarina's account of the day:
As soon as I entered Tonbridge School, I was taken aback by the sheer size and glamour of the place. For the Junior competition, I was sat in the audience and got to watch their presentations, and I remember thinking how I was glad I wasn’t going up against any of them! Their presentations were truly amazing, and there were some great public speakers.
When the Senior competition started, I waited in the library with the other competitors. Despite most of them being from competitive private schools, the atmosphere wasn’t really that of a group of people competing against each other, but a group of future scientists eager to share presentations on the topics they were passionate about.
When my turn came, the nervousness left me as soon as I began to talk. I realised that the most important thing about my speech was to let my passion and interest shine in every word I spoke and that’s what I did. I think ultimately that’s the part I’m most proud of, that I was able to share my passion with people as a budding astronomer; to save the night sky from effects of light pollution.