Five 14-year-old chemistry students from St Margaret College’s Girls’ Secondary, Żejtun, who won the 2013 NSTF Young Scientists school contest with their project The Effect of Herbicides on Archaeological Stones, recently represented Malta at the Belgian Science Expo 2013 held at the Tours et Taxis exhibition centre.

Around 200 projects were presented by around 3,000 students taking part in the expo, which aims to promote children’s and youths’ scientific projects in a multi-cultural environment.

Students from Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Mexico also took part.

The students also participated in a number of hands-on activities, including experiments set up by Greenlight for Girls, an international organisation dedicated to inspire girls of all ages and backgrounds to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

During the expo, a cultural evening and international buffet was organised at which each country presented its own performance of traditional songs, dance and games, as well as prepared some traditional food for tasting. The students also visited the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels and the iconic Atomium.

The students’ project can be found on http://herbicidesandstonesproject.webs.com/ or look up Herbicides and Stones Project on Facebook.