Students showcase creativity at VINLEC National Science Fair (+Video)

Students from across the nation showcased their ‘scientific innovation and creativity’ at the VINLEC National Science and Technology Science fair which ended on Thursday, November 10.

Nellise Williams, the only student to have represented the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College presented a project, “Are All The Ingredients In Cookies Necessary?”

Williams shared that her project is about how ingredients affect the taste, appearance and the shape of cookies. She explained that though she has found sugar and flour to be necessary ingredients, eggs are not and can be replaced by oil for moisture. Williams presented her samples of eggless and sugarless cookies to verify her results.

He said his inspiration came from recycling projects on YouTube. He also explained that though he faced a few challenges with leakage and creating the palm trees, he is confident about his project.

Student of the Girls’ High School Christel Sutherland left students of the School for Special Needs in awe with her Natural Disaster Detection System that is designed to detect signs of natural disasters and send alerts to the public more efficiently than at present via an alert sound system and a lighthouse system for the deaf.

Sutherland explained that her system was inspired by residents in close proximity to the Soufriere Volcano who lost homes during the 2021 eruptions.

Da’andra Charles, Deonde John and Nellia Maloney’s project ‘How Sweet is Too Sweet’ focusses on health. One of the participants shared that their mother had suffered with diabetes so their project aims at allowing people to test the sweetness of their drink, using a meter that the group created to help curb the high levels of diabetes in the world today.

And Girls’ High School student, Ennabelle McMaster presented a project “Building a Resilient Nation” to promote mental and emotional well-being awareness.

“After the pandemic and the volcanic eruption, the word resilience was showing up [in]a lot of places so I researched and I thought it would be a nice project”, she told SEARCHLIGHT.

Keyshawn Peters, a Grade 6 student of the Bequia Anglican Primary School, created a water fountain which aims to reduce pollution.

McMaster further explained that resilience is an important skill for everyone to develop because it maintains mental and emotional health.

Students from the St Clair Dacon Secondary School presented their project, “The Ideal Bridge For Connecting Mainland St. Vincent and Bequia”.

They said their bridge is a hybrid of a beam bridge and a hydraulic bridge.

They further explained that water from the ocean will be pressurised into the bridge to lift it so that boats can be pass under.

And, they suggested that businesses could benefit from this bridge due to the ease of transporting goods from mainland St Vincent to Bequia.

Kady Joe, a student of the Barrouallie Secondary School reused passion fruit shells as a small planting pot to grow seedlings. She said since the shell is biodegradable, it will be broken down to provide nutrients for the soil.

And students from the St Martins Secondary School did a project, ‘Bottle and Glass’ which aimed to mix broken bottles, sand and cement to create blocks for construction. They said a machine will be used to do this task.

Coordinator of the Fair, Juanita Hunte-King said she was proud of the students’ presentation of the theme. – “Scientific Innovation and Creativity – Keys to Our Nation’s Resiliency.” She added that planning the event has been both challenging and rewarding.

However, she enjoys events like these because it gives students the opportunity to showcase their scientific ideas.

Presentations of the top projects and the announcement of winners was done Friday, November 11.