NICOLA Siepman who has been chosen as the SPAR Star of the Month recently won the Grade 11 section of the St Benedict School Science Expo with her project entitled ‘Mind over Matter’.
Nicola’s project dealt with the Placebo effect, proving its effectiveness and shedding light on a commonly overlooked topic.
The placebo effect is a medically beneficial effect – when a person is given a placebo tablet and is led to believe that it is actual medication, they experience the effects of this medication even though the placebo tablet contains no active medical substance.
For the experiment, Nicola gave a group of 35 people placebo tablets (gelatine capsules filled with icing sugar) for two weeks and told them it was a multivitamin which would increase their energy levels and concentration. For the next two weeks they were then given an actual multivitamin.
The initial hypothesis was that the multivitamin would be more effective in increasing energy levels than the placebo tablet but this was ultimately disproven.
The average daily energy rating for the placebo tablet was seven whereas the multivitamin was six, which proved that the placebo effect was indeed more effective than the actual multivitamin.
Nicola is also currently the chairperson of the Environmental Club and has also received half colours for four years participation, with three years as the club secretary. Nicola has advanced the recycling programme, both within and outside of the school, and has initiated a WaterWise campaign.
