Commonwealth award in science for Pointe Larue secondary school educators

A science project presented by the Pointe Larue secondary school to the Commonwealth Association of Science, Technology and Mathematics Educators (CASTME) for its annual awards in 2010, has been awarded a silver award (second prize).

The educational project, entitled ‘Hand-made apparatus to teach and learn science’, was carried out by Lionel Goonetilleka and four students of Pointe Larue secondary school in 2010 on how easily available material could be used in the construction of certain scientific equipment to be used in classrooms or school science laboratories.

It was an extension of the project which Pointe Larue secondary school presented at the school science and technology fair 2010 which won the first prize for S4, S5 category as well as the prize for the most innovative project of the science fair 2010.

The student who took part in the project are Mersiah Rose, Yannick Joseph, Leroy Leste, and Govin Pillay, all from S4 of Pointe Larue secondary school.

The project is intended to encourage and assist mainly primary school science teachers to show how they could use their skills to make their own scientific equipment which could even be used in secondary schools. The project illustrates graphically and with technical details how the following items could be constructed using mainly discarded material.

The items constructed are: beakers, measuring cylinder, normal funnel, separating funnel, eureka can, pressure & depth instrument, dropping pipette, tap with control, portable sink to be used in classroom, hydrometer, water storage tank with controllable exit to be used in classrooms.

Discarded item used in the exercise are various throw-away plastic containers, plastic sheets and films, plastic & rubber tubing, throw-away aluminum cans, metal sheets, metal wire, nails, etc which normally end in waste dumps.

CASTME awards competition is open to science mathematics & technology educators of all the Commonwealth countries and the criteria used for judging by an expert panel of judges are evidence of originality, creativity, use in practice, social relevance, standard of presentation, organisation and structure of the report.

More weight are given to projects which fall within the Commonwealth foundation’s millennium goals i.e. universal primary education & bridging the gap in gender in education.

Participants discussing techniques of calibration

According to Mr Goonetilleka, the project satisfies all the stringent criteria listed above and also it aims at conservation of material and energy resources which is highly appropriate in present context and he wishes to continue working on the project with younger students so that it could be used by any science teacher in Seychelles or abroad.

He considers the prestigious award as an encouragement to the work done by students under his guidance.

Seychelles Nation - 08.06.2011