Innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics were on display today at the Princess Hotel and young bright minds were behind those
innovations. High School students from across the country were tasked to devise practical solutions to problems affecting their schools and communities
for the SAGICOR VISIONARIES CHALLENGE.
On Monday we gave you a glimpse of what to expect with Canaan's electromagnetic generator ventilation system but today the innovation nation was in
full force. Courtney Weatherburne found out more:…
The Kings Room at the Princess Hotel was packed with young visionaries this morning. The participants in the SAGICOR Visionaries Challenge had ingenious
innovations on display that explored solutions to various health and environmental issues.
Jon Moreno - Muffles College
"What I am basically doing is using lemon grass tea, mostly known as fever grass. You boil the leaves to make this tea that will make you reduce high
blood pressure. The reason i'm doing this is because due to many of our parents and adults working, they have less time to take care of themselves.
They have less time to cook their own meals and they rely on fast foods and canned foods."
Alciro Noriega, Teacher - Escuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico
"We found the problem at our school, we have limited space for rearing of animals and we're increasing the production. So we have a lot of animals and
we don't have land. What we have seen is that this would help us to minimise the cost of the feed and of course the problem we have of limited land,
this will be enough for them."
Fernando Patt, Teacher - Escuela Secundaria Tecnica Mexico
"It will help because we're going to lower the expenditure for our livestock and we're going to provide our livestock with nutrients, clean and fresh
feed for them."
Clean and Fresh: That is also the objective of these students from the Belmopan Comprehensive School. They want to keep the rivers and creeks clean in the
Maya Mopan area in Belmopan by constructing a Laundry-facility for women.
Josette McGaan - Belmopan Comprehensive School
"What we are trying to do is get people to stop bathing and washing in the rivers. What we have here is we're going to install showers and tubs for
them to use and we're going to partner with the community to actually construct this facility. The structure of the building is already in place and
we're going to partner with the Belmopan City Council to finish the project which they initially started. Well it is eco -friendly because we're moving
the people who are polluting the river and also because we are using natural water catchment systems. There's already a vat in place and when it
doesn't rain there is a well that has a pump to extract water and distribute it. Also in Belmopan what we have is the drainage water go to a plant
built by the city council that will recycle the water and distribute it again."
And one thing that these students don't want distributed on their island is garbage. That is why they are building a waste management sanitary landfill.
Rosanna Guerrero- San Pedro High School
"Our problem which we identified in our island was the improper management of waste. We are burning our garbage and sending our garbage to Belize which
will be more expensive for us. So we plan to have our own sanitary land fill. The sanitary landfill is basically just an opening in the ground and it
has 2 liners. A plastic liner as well as a clear liner and we will place the waste in separate cells and they will be covered with soil daily to
prevent exposure to the environment."
Abel Simpson- Unit Manager, Sagicor Capital Life Insurance
"Wonderful displays, there is a lot of brain power. You know there is a lot of effort and there is a lot of innovation that will be put into it. The
competition is really designed to have high school students identify different challenges in our school and also their communities and using stem,
science, technology, engineering and mathematics to be able to come up with viable solutions to be able to solve these problems."
And those participants who presented the best solution to the issue affecting their school are the students from Bishop Martin High School in Orange Walk.
They garnered 1st place with their Chaya Mayan Power for Modern Times Project.
Maria Pech- St. Bishop Martin School
"It was just about awareness about Chaya. Our country is suffering from malnutrition, we wanted people to get involve with this because it's very
nutritious and people seem to consume a lot of artificial foods right now in the modern world. We wanted to work with the government to create a policy
where it should be given to the patience of the hospital for at least 3 times a week; Because the patiences need it and they need to recover. It will
also help the country because we wanted to distribute the Chaya, so everyone can have access to Chaya."
Wilson Mendoza - Teacher
"Many of our students while they were in assembly standing out in the sun, many of them started fainting. So we know there is malnutrition, there is
bad eating habits situation in our school. So we need to find a solution and that is what geared up our project. So the first that came up was, let's
use something from our historical background, Chaya."
There were 54 entries and only 3 top winners. National winners Bishop Martin School get to participate in the Regional Competition in Florida in July.
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