Students showcase innovative solutions at science exhibition

As prices of goods and services rise, jobs get scarce and hard to come by, and to those who have, salaries remain constant, people tirelessly look for solutions to financial challenges facing them.

The solutions could include ways of preserving food to avoid wastage or using affordable alternative goods and services that will still provide them with what they are looking for.

Punya Shah and Varun Jain, both 11-year-old boys from Oshwal Academy Nairobi, have developed a charcoal cooler that preserves food much like a fridge.

It will only cost you Sh500 to develop.

Another young innovator, 17-year-old Dzana Delic, has homemade pesticides that fruit, vegetable and flower farmers who dig deep into their pockets and hardly make much profit from their produce as a result of purchasing modern pesticides, will run for.

Faysal Osman and Naghib Swaleh, who are both 13, from Light Academy, Malindi, will show you how you can be a fish and chicken farmer with just Sh3,000 in your pocket.

These are just but a few of the bright innovations that young students showcased during this year’s Golden Climate International Environmental Project Olympiad at Light Academy in Mombasa which ended on Saturday.

PREVENTING FOOD WASTAGE

“There is a lot of food wastage at homes as a result of high temperatures and this is especially challenging to families who cannot afford fridges or are not connected to electricity,” began Punya as he went ahead to explain how the cooler is made and works.

The cooler, which reduces temperature by 5 to 10 degrees is made of two meshed wire boxes (one big and another small) supported by timber frames.

The bigger box is then sparingly filled with charcoal and sprinkled with water before the smaller meshed box covered in a damp towel is placed inside.

“The coolers work on the principle of evaporation. Warm dry air flows through the wet charcoal, which does not allow passage of heat thus lowering the temperature inside the cooler and preserves food,” said Varun.

Varun says that the same technique can also be applied in making large size coolers depending on one’s needs.

He adds that since it does not need electricity, it can best work in homes or areas where electricity is not available.

However, he points that the cooler cannot work effectively in very humid areas and cannot freeze food.

Josh Adiema who is the head of the science department at Oshwal Academy, Nairobi described Punya and Varun as ‘scientists’ who enjoy practical work and participate a lot in class work.

AFFORDABLE INSECTICIDE

Dzana who goes to school at Sarajevo College in Vraca says one can get an affordable insecticide ready for spraying on plants after 24 hours by mixing one large onion, garlic bulb and a table spoonful of chilli powder with hot water in an electronic mixer.

The mash mixture is then strained and put in an empty spray bottle.

Naghib Swaleh of Light Academy Malindi say that fish feed on chicken droppings and that the droppings, are rich in calcium and other nutrients edible to fish.

By combining a chicken house high above a fish pond one can be both a fish and chicken farmer and spend less in purchasing fish food.

The chicken droppings also add manure to water plants that act as food and breeding grounds for fish.

At least students from 25 countries from countries such as Indonesia, Ghana, Somalia, and Kenya, among others, participated in the exhibition.

Winners of outstanding projects which are supervised by experts were awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals.