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Matatiele learners take their winning project to Beijing
Grade 11 learner Refuoe Faltein and grade 12 learner Peter Theron's project demonstrates the generation of alternative energy through harnessing charges in the atmosphere to create a power station. The competition aims to encourage students in rural areas who are studying science and maths to enter careers in these fields. Participants are tasked with finding energy solutions to the problems in their communities. The competition is adjudicated by SAASTA. Competing against the world's best in Beijing Participation in the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition in March formed part of Refuoe and Peter's reward for winning the Learner Focus Week competition. Organised by the Beijing Association for Science and Technology, the annual competition has become a platform to demonstrate science and technology practices and innovations ranging from robots to environmental pollution research from elementary and middle school students in Beijing. Around 300 000 students from around the world participated in the 2014 preliminary contest. Some 1885 projects were submitted. Learners and educators from 12 countries and regions participated in the event. Refuoe (a learner at Mosabisi High School) and Peter (a learner at Focused High School) were accompanied to Beijing by the Mosabisi High School Physical Sciences educator Nontembiso Ramabele, SAASTA Nanotechnology Public Engagement Programme Coordinator Mthuthuzeli Zamxaka, and Ms Lulama Ntshaba of the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education (DBE). Silver medal Theron and Faltein's project, the only entry from Africa, won a silver medal. The project was well received by the judges, says Mthuthuzeli Zamxaka. Lulama Ntshaba says: "These learners got an opportunity to interact with first world countries about their ideas, which could be the solution to the challenges being experienced, not only by their communities and their country, but by other countries as well and could have a positive impact on all of their economies. "Discussions with other countries during the conference indicated that the DBE should strengthen its curriculum by integrating theory into practice for productive outcomes that could uplift the economy of this country," she adds. Harnessing lightning for power Faltein and Theron say the lack of electricity and the high incidence of lightning in their region prompted them to look for a way to harness it. They haven't solved the fundamental problem of lightning strikes being positively or negatively charged yet, says Faltein, but they are working on it. What the pair did manage to create is a low cost, sustainable power station, which takes atmospheric charges and (using a magnetic field, an antenna, a transistor and a few other components) accelerates them to turn them into usable energy. The energy can be stored in a capacitor or used immediately, Faltein explains. The pair added a generator to the unit, which the unit then powers, to create a two-way power station that generates AC current. Helping them in their efforts is Professor Maalik Maaza, senior researcher in the Nanosciences Laboratory of the iThemba LABS materials research department, and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's Unisa Africa Chair in Nanosciences and Nanotechnology. Maaza says: "Currently the practicality of the proposed solution is unknown. However, it is an original concept that bears further research under controlled laboratory conditions." iThemba LABS operates a range of equipment for particle and nuclear research, including a Van de Graaff generator, an electrostatic unit capable of generating high voltages similar to those created by a lightning strike. Both Maaza and Ramabele say the project is particularly exciting: "Our aim is to take the research started by the two youngsters into the laboratory and further their work under a controlled research environment." The concept of using lightning as an energy source is not a new one and South Africa has, in the past, undertaken research in this area, particularly the pioneering work of DG Malan and Basil Schonland. "However, it has not been given serious attention for a number of years, mainly due to the danger involved in experimenting with such high energy as well as the limitations of technology at the time," Maaza comments. The learners, says Zamxaka, will be travelling to the Western Cape in their holidays to work with Maaza on the project and see it into its next phases. Adapted from an article that was published in Mail & Guardian, April 11 - 16, by Samantha Perry (M&G) and Daryl Ilbury (SAASTA) |
