By Emily Setona
QWAQWA – Witsieshoek Primary School hosted Nicho Swartz from the Eskom Expo for young scientists as he came to check on the progress of learners’ expo projects and to give some guidance and advice.
Speaking to The Guard, Swartz said there are three categories for most of the science expo projects, namely scientific investigation, engineering and social science.
“The kids gathered here today have come up with projects that try to solve a problem that they’ve identified in their Community,” Swartz said.
Paballo Mokwena and Siyabonga Mkhonza – grade 7 learners from Molibeli Primary School – came up with a solar WiFi tower.
“Our community has electricity problems; the power goes off every day, so we decided to create a solar WiFi tower that will not only supply electricity but also WiFi to houses that are connected to this tower,” Mkhonza said.
The grade 4 to 7 subject advisor for Natural Science and Technology (NST), Nthabiseng Motaung, said; “I have been a judge for the Eskom Expo since 2012. As a subject advisor I always encourage NST teachers to motivate their learners to participate in the science expo. Our children are very intelligent and they need to be exposed to such opportunities.”
“The Eskom Expo for young scientists is doing its best to have as many learners as possible from rural schools participate in the expo, even though the kids have little or no resources. The projects that I’ve seen today show me that the learners are very smart and just need guidance and support, then they can solve the problems in their communities,” Swartz said.
