Pupils think big for science fair
The pupils of Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School weren’t afraid to think big for their annual science fair.
A potential alternative food crop for flood and climate change stricken Fijian villages and a treadmill-powered phone charger were two of the stand out entries at the school’s 2017 Scifest.
School teacher and Scifest organiser Warwick Grady said it was difficult to pick who to enter into next week’s Manawatu Science and Technology Fair from the school’s 160 finalists.
‘‘There was a very high standard this year. All of them could have gone, but we could only send 50.’’
William Giles and Ben Richards, both 12, wanted to make sure they could keep their phones working during a power cut. So they came up with a treadmill-powered device that could charge a phone with just over an hour of walking.
The pupils nailed their invention together from what they had lying around at their homes – some bits of wood, an old treadmill and an electric scooter.
William said his grandfather knew an engineer who was going to help them build a more polished prototype, then the young inventors planned to try and sell it.
‘‘It was a really fun project to work on, but we still need to think of a catchier name [than Treadmill Phone Charger],’’ Ben said.
The seed of 12-year-old Josephine Meyer’s idea was planted when her family visited a coastal Fijian village in June. She noticed their taro crops were dying.
The plant couldn’t handle the sudden increases in salt left in the soil during the semi-regular floods.
Joesphine decided to test spinach as an alternative food crop. She watered her spinach plants with water solutions with up to 4 per cent salt over two weeks. The spinach wilted a little at first, but quickly adapted to the higher salt levels.
She planned to take her findings to the New Zealand Agency for International Development, so they could use the idea to help coastal villages.