Sand Plaster gained George Murray a Highly Commended Award in the Physical World section (yr 7 - 8) and the Mining Industry Award.
George is an 11-year-old from Ward school, who has a lot of sand on the farm so he decided to find a use for it. His aim was to see which size sand particles would make the best plaster.
First George screened out three size grades of sand, then he made separate plaster mixes with the sand grades, and some with a mixture of grades, following the same recipe.
To test which plaster mix was the best George came up with clever ways of measuring the plasters strength (the force needed to break a pellet) and smoothness (stretch of a band by friction).
George learned how to make plaster, that a mixture of sizes gives the best plaster and was amazed by the different size of sand grains.
George got help from his mum and dad with the design of his experiment but did the work himself.
His advice to others doing science is "start early, seek help, keep your log in your own hand writing don't type out again".