The face and voice of Cyprian Okirigi were laden with confidence as he hoisted the trophy his team won in the National Science and Technology Challenge organized by Oysters & Pearls-Uganda at Gulu University.
With strides of a winner, Cyprian bolted to where I was, fixed himself shoulder-to shoulder with me as I interviewed his team-mate. Visibly keen to have his voice on the challenge heard, again, he interjected. “Can I say something?” I responded in the affirmative.
“Students should not retain the knowledge they acquire from class. They must join clubs and practice regularly to advance their knowledge,” he advised.
“These competitions are based on class work. Not rocket science,” he added.
Cyprian and his team mates from Kiira College Butiki, modeled a ‘Smart Farm’, an automatic greenhouse designed to solve the problem of unpredictable weather, the burden of manual irrigation and pests and diseases. The prototype is installed with a fan, smoke sensor and water pump that all function automatically depending on a particular need.
The challenge under the theme: “Creating Cutting Edge Technologies that will Add Value and Quality to Agriculture,” attracted eight other schools across the country.
Prior to the competitions, several teams received coaching and mentoring from Oysters & Pearls-Uganda staff during the school year and attended a residential holiday program in August. At the same time, the students were taught how to identify problems in their community and design simple devices to solve them, identifying a market niche in the process.
The Challenge began with a Quiz Show format on science, technology and general knowledge, which earned the competitors 40 % of their total score. They then pitched their projects to four judges to earn 60% of their weighted score.
With carefully thought-out lines and confident presentation, the winning team wowed the judges in less than 10 minutes; the time allotted for each group to present their project and respond to questions from judges.
“We are always winning because of team work, confidence, research and adequate preparation. Our patron encourages us when we are feeling low and hopeless,” said Cyprian, who revealed that is it was the 4th science competition his team had won this year.
Gilbert Arinda, one of the judges of the challenge, remarked that the prototype could be easily adopted and used by the community, if turned into a real machine.
And because no academic gathering is complete without words of wisdom from a seasoned teacher, Dr. Benedict Oyo, the dean of Faculty of Science at Gulu University, observed that Oysters & Pearls-Uganda is giving science students in Uganda a rare opportunity.
“It is amazing to see what can be done at secondary school. If this knowledge was there during our secondary school days, Uganda would have gone far in terms of technology, because a country cannot develop without innovation capacity. And when I see these students, I see scientists beyond scientists,” Dr. Oyo said.
