Ntsika Senior Secondary School pupil, Ntsikikelo Charles, won a gold award in the Grahamstown Regional Finals of the 2013 Eskom Expo for Young Scientists at Rhodes University last Friday.
Ntsika Senior Secondary School pupil, Ntsikikelo Charles, won a gold award in the Grahamstown Regional Finals of the 2013 Eskom Expo for Young Scientists at Rhodes University last Friday.
Charles won gold with his project that investigated recycled water for crop irrigation.
The Grade 11 student also won two further awards: Eskom’s Best Project by a Development Participant and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Southern Africa’s (WESSA) Best Development Project.
The overall winner was Nicole Oyetunji, from Victoria Girls’ High School, whose project “Can Diluted Salt Water Increase Anti-Oxidant Levels in Tomatoes?” also won a gold award.
Charles said he could not believe how well he had done and was grateful for the opportunity the Expo had afforded him.
“My dream is to study Pharmacy and I am overjoyed because I feel that I am one step closer to achieving my dream,” he said.
The top five overall winners have secured bursaries to study science at Rhodes University, which will cover their first year of tuition.
They will also represent the Eastern Cape at the National Science Expo later this year.
Other top scorers were Lauren and Jacqui James from Victoria Girls’ High School, who came third and fourth. In fifth place were Jessie Ferreira and Nicole McCarthy from Diocesan School for Girls, who received a silver award for their project about chicken feed.
Christopher Matthews and Joshua Thorburn, from Kingswood College, won the Best Grassland Science Project.
The Best Project in Environmental Monitoring went to Nombulelo High School’s Sophakama Zabo, for her project, “Caring for Weather”.
A total of 123 projects from local schools were entered for the 33rd Eskom Expo.
