Zeeburg Secondary wins Sagicor Science Competition

– will represent Guyana regionally

Loud cheers, screams and applause echoed throughout the Umana Yana on Saturday as Zeeburg Secondary School was named the winner of the national leg of the Sagicor Science Competition. The school will represent Guyana at the regional competition in Barbados.

The school outdid its 19 other competitors with its project, “Use of a shrimp dryer to reduce air pollution at Zeeburg Secondary School”. The project is aimed at reducing air pollution at Zeeburg, West Coast Demerara; a fishing community whose main economic activity is shrimp drying. As a result of this activity, there is an unpleasant odour and an infestation of flies which pollute the environment and severely affects teachers and students during instructional hours.
Hence, the school came up with the idea of constructing a shrimp processor to reduce the adverse environmental effects experienced by the school and its immediate community.
In a 250 words draft of their project, which was posted online for public voting, along with the other projects, the school stated that “the dryer will be solar powered and reduce the time taken to process the shrimp. Alternative energy sources for the shrimp dryer can be harvested from sources such as coconut shells, sawdust or wind energy.” The students’ team leader and a supervising teacher from Zeeburg Secondary will represent Guyana in the regional competition which will be held in Barbados on April 12 and 13.
The national finals of the first ever Sagicor Science Competition, was held on Saturday at the Umana Yana, Kingston, where the 20 participating schools set up their presentations.
The event began around 15:00h, at which time 13 judges and others present at the venue were able to view each booth and given an explanation of how the projects work.
While Zeeburg won the competition, President’s College copped the first place, with Skeldon Line Path Secondary coming in second.

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There were five other categories of prizes. Anna Regina Secondary, President’s College and Zeeburg Secondary tied for the prize of Best Presentation.
Another prize, the best use of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) was awarded to President’s College, Skeldon Line Path Secondary, Tagore Secondary and Zeeburg Secondary.
President’s College was given the prize of the Best Plan and Project Design, while Zeeburg secured the Best Creative and Innovative Presentation Award. The Caribbean Sustainability Communities Award was given to St Ignatius Secondary.
The schools were given up to February 23 to propose a 250-word draft of their projects which were on display Saturday. These drafts were posted on the website, where persons were allowed to vote for the school or project of their choice and those votes represented a small percentage of the overall judging criteria.
The schools had to get a total of 30 points, from which four were allotted from the online voting and the remaining 26 from the judges.
From the 12 participating countries in the regional competition, Guyana saw the highest entries in the national leg and also acquired some 6800 votes online, the second highest regionally.
In addition, the national winners from all 12 countries participating, will be awarded by Sagicor, the opportunity to represent their respective countries in a seven-day all expense paid STEM Ambassador Programme in Florida, USA, which includes visits to places like the Kennedy Space Centre, Disney’s EPCOT Centre, the Museum of Science and Industry and the engineering labs at the University of South Florida. The regional winner (country) of the competition will be awarded US$ 5000.
Chief Education Officer Olato Sam thanked everyone for their participation and for making the competition a success.
He urged teachers to continue their quest in encouraging interests in the sciences.
Sam also challenged corporate Guyana to become more involved in the education sector, especially in activities such as these, which seek to advance the development of science in schools.