Young minds impress at science expo

MOSSEL BAY NEWS & VIDEO - The hall at Point High School in Mossel Bay was the scene of hustle and bustle and chitter chatter on Friday, 11 August, when the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists Eden and Small Karoo area regional competition took place.

There were many more entries than last year.

One of the most interesting projects on display was Sinoxolo Ntusikazi's Science of a Lemon.

He said: "I noticed people in the township are using rusty nails to build their homes. I did some research and found out that only citric acid can remove rust and lemons contain citric acid."

So, Sinoxolo, who attends Indwe Secondary School in Mossel Bay, went to a scrapyard, found some rusty items and left them in a container with some water and lemons. The acid ate the rust away.

Ayanda Sokutu, also of Indwe Secondary School, built a model tank and pipe with multiple holes on the sides of the pipe for fighting fires.

Two primary school children, Jaco Jacobs of George South Primary School and Hanna van Coller, who is home schooled, built a number of items from lego and showed their skill in robotics.

Point High School's Janik Janse van Rensburg devised an alarm system so that farmers could be alerted if there was a sudden leak in a pipe and their dam level dropped.

Andrea Wolmarans of Knysna High School investigated the link between babies born by Caesarean section and obesity later in life and displayed her findings.

Joran Davids created a heater in a polystyrene cooler box that can keep liquid warm for two hours. She used bubbly ginger beer to generate the heat.

Isabella de Beer of Knysna High grew plants in gelatine but was unable to display her samples because her dog ate them at home.

Many of the children were extremely honest about the shortfalls of their projects when they were interviewed and said they had learnt much through the experience. See the results in the Mossel Bay Advertiser this week.

Click here for a photo gallery.

Watch a video below: