Abbotsford school wins Scifest quiz
ABBOTSFORD Christian School’s junior quiz team proved to be the brainiest at this year’s Scifest Africa Rhodes University High School Science Quiz.
After rounds of questions on mathematics, chemistry, physical science and geology, the team walked away as winners.
Grade 9 team members Gehma Blignaut and Jayda Peters, and Bradley Wewege, in Grade 10, were competing against Graeme College and Victoria Girls’ High.
Scifest Africa is held annually in Grahamstown, and the quiz was one of many activities on the festival’s programme. The week-long festival was held this month and celebrated its 21st anniversary.
It drew more than 50 000 visitors from southern Africa, and had more than 60 exhibitions and hundreds of events, presented by contributors from various organisations in South Africa and from six other countries.
The quiz aims to develop and inspire pupils, and has two categories, a junior high school category (grades 8 to 10) and a senior high school category (grades 11 to 12).
Each quiz consists of two rounds, a qualification round in the form of a written quiz completed by teams at their school, and a final round, which sees the top four teams in each category travel to the festival for the final battle.
The winners walked away with a Raspberry Pi powered laptop and Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit.
The Abbotsford pupils said they were honoured to have participated in the quiz. “We enjoyed the challenge and look forward to defending our title next year,” said Bradley.
Abbotsford principal Margretha Esprey said the trio were chosen on merit. “They demonstrate academic vigour and show a lot of enthusiasm towards the school, and their work ethic is outstanding. We are proud of our three boffins.”
The pupils had prepared by doing extensive reading and studying, and had taken part in online tests.
In 2014 the school’s senior team clinched first place in the Scifest quiz, and won first-year bursaries to Rhodes University.