By Aaliyah McFarlane
Hundreds of students, teachers and parents from all across Guyana descended on Region Four’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Fair 2023 being held under the theme “Transforming Education through Innovation and STEAM.”
This year’s STEAM fair, a two-day event, opened on Tuesday at the Hope Secondary School and ended yesterday. A total of 111 Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools took part.
A teacher of Company Road Nursery, Shondell Edwards, told Stabroek News that her school’s exhibit was basically the use of sea shells to create various items like plant pots, jewellery and craft. All the products are handmade by the teachers and students. The two students who were at the exhibits were Darrell Dublin and Shalom Letlow, both aged 5.
Another teacher, this time from New Friendship Nursery School, Nasce Paul, and her two pupils, Malique Phillips and Jasmine John both aged 5, told Stabroek News that they were showcasing the use of herbal teas, commonly known as ‘bush tea’, and their benefits. They had made tea bags with different types of ‘bush’ and were giving them to anyone interested in trying them out. Some of the ‘bush’ included lemon grass, tulsie, sweet sage, and teazam.
A student of Golden Grove Primary School, ten-year-old Jaheim Mahaica, told Stabroek News that the title of their display was “From trash to treasure”. He noted that “Trash to treasure” was created to assist with finding environmental solutions to unwanted objects such as tyres, plastics and pallets. “Our focus is basically on tires which are dumped within our community and across the country in illegal dump-sites, and when there is rain, the settled water within the tyres become breathing grounds for mosquitoes and rats and no one likes those.” Used tyres, he added, consume a lot of space in our environment, but can be recycled. The teacher who was present, Marcia Gordon, also told Stabroek News that all of the items were handmade by her.
Tye Armstrong, aged 9, and a student of Company Road Primary, told Stabroek News that their project came about because they are currently having a problem with bees. “It’s all because of the juice boxes. When you drink juice, do you get all the juice from the box or bottle? In most cases no, the leftover juice we throw it in the bin and the bees get attracted to that sweet smell, so when they get attracted they would fly around the place to see where the smell is coming from and when they are there, they affect the classrooms… So we have a solution to this problem which is we take plastic bags, throw the juice boxes into the bags, knot the bags and then throw them into the garbage bins with covers.” He also added that bees can be dangerous because they can sting you, and if you have an allergic reaction you can die. The young student noted that bees are also very helpful because they produce honey, as well as wax which can be used to make candles and soaps.
A student from Hope Secondary School, Abdool Khan, aged 15, told Stabroek News that their exhibit explored humans’ tendency to keep pushing outward as humans have an innate instinct to explore and expand and this, he noted, is potentially our next way forward. “We haven’t expanded inwards into our more mainland regions of our country that is because there are a lot of forested areas… and damaging those areas could cause irreversible damage to the ecosystems found within, habitat loss to some species.”
Coordinator of the Region’s Science Fair, Education Officer Praniva Singh told Stabroek News yesterday that she was happy to see the turnout and participation with 148 projects from 111 schools. “It’s a very good turnout and we also have maximum participation like the children and teachers coming out to view the exhibits and also participation from all categories.”
She explained, “Judging will be done by a panel of competent judges with various expertise from NCERD [National Centre for Educational Resource Development], TVET [Technical and Vocational Education and Training] Unit, CPCE [Cyril Potter College of Education], Ministry of Education, GDF Engineering Corps, retired head teachers, and teachers from our Regional Debating/Literacy Committees.”
