Solar Superstorms

Who Sophia L. and Scarlett P., Smith’s Hill High School, NSW

What The energy behind solar superstorms. In their dramatic film, Solar Superstorms, Sophia and Scarlett use dance, humour and special effects to explain the cataclysmic impacts which could be upon us if a solar superstorm were to hit Earth.

Runners-up in the 2024 University of Sydney Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize – Secondary.

Your film explores the energy behind solar superstorms and the cataclysmic effects if one were to hit Earth. How did you land on this topic?

This year’s theme was Energy, and we brainstormed many ideas relating to this topic, and we eventually came down to the idea of Solar Superstorms. We thought this was very interesting as Solar Superstorms are the biggest outburst of energy and we thought we could carry out energy very well throughout the video.

In addition to being well researched, your film is visually stunning! What did you have the most fun with when you were putting the film together?

Scarlett: I really enjoyed making this movie with my best friend. I liked everything but my favourite bit was watching the sunrise, it was a very special experience that I will never forget.

Sophia: I agree, I especially loved dancing on the beach, as well as making all the stop motions and sneakily taking one or two of the lollies from it.

What’s your advice to other students thinking about entering the Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize?

Some advice is to choose a topic that you would enjoy making a video on. Also try to integrate your skills, hobbies and interests into the video. For example, we both love dancing, and we added some elements of dance into our video which was lots of fun for both of us. We would also like to tell anyone interested in this competition to give it a go and have fun. Because you never know what you might learn!

What was the most interesting thing that you learnt during your research?

Apart from learning the science behind solar superstorms, we learnt that science can be communicated through dance and other creative arts elements to help others understand the concept. We also learned many skills of filmmaking such as editing and stop motion.

What were some of the more challenging parts of film production?

While we enjoyed many aspects of making the video, including spending lots of time together, researching, dancing and acting, one of the most challenging parts was the stop motion as we had to be very patient as it took countless hours of effort. The editing of the video was difficult as well and we would like to thank our parents for supporting us in this process.

Sponsored by the University of Sydney, the Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize encourages students to communicate a scientific concept in a short film. It is intended to support budding young scientists across the nation, who will be our future leaders in research, discovery and communication.