Expo 2011
Expo 2011
In 2011 COSAT entered 4 teams in the Science Expo and on the 25th of August 3 of them were awarded medals! The two teams who won gold are both going to Johannesburg next month to represent the Western Cape in the National Science Expo and one of those teams won the prize for best project in the whole of the Western Cape.
These students had only two months to prepare their research projects, complete the research and put together presentations consisting of posters, research reports and any physical objects they had made. But in that time, with the help of their teachers, they produced went up against 71 other participating schools and walked away with three out of… medals. Chumani Nogwaza and Cwenga Sotashe were unfortunate not to receive medals this year, but hope to continue their investigation into Khayelitsha wetland pollution. Lifa Botha and Shaun Mbolompo designed and built an electricity generator which won them a bronze medal. Lwandile Yanta and Siyabulela Mtyela’s project investigated the effect of contaminated paraffin in informal settlements and won them gold, a spot representing the Western Province and new Swatch watches.
Odwa Mavuso and Lizo Ncaphai investigated homophobia in Khayelitsha, its effects and contributing factors and their project received the top award for all projects presented.
All of the teams received subscriptions to Popular Mechanics and these were awarded before the medals. Siyabulela describes the students surprise at their success, “When we were called up for the magazine subscriptions, we thought we did really well". We thought, “Wow that was great, we can go home now and then, they kept calling us, and in the end we got gold!”
 |