The Grade 6 and 7 class, represented by Nicolas Reid, Kharma Rossi, Azi Ngumbela, Heather Anderson and Teva Shneor, designed an evaporative refrigerator, which is basically a tub surrounded by wet sand and held together with cloth and plastic mesh with a lid on top. Amazingly this device, made from scraps found around the home, lowers the temperature of its contents quite dramatically making electricity quite unnecessary in refrigeration.
The simplicity and practicality of this little fridge caught the eyes of the judges who were surprised at the youth of these inventors and were impressed with their understanding of the broader issues of sustainability. The famous five were feted at the event and a great fuss was made of their age and expertise. They were given a special award for their project in the Young Designers Category; other contestants were all from high schools.
The children owe their greatness to Susan Donald who is the facilitator for WESSA’s program for Environmental Education in the Bitou area. Susan works closely with Greenwood Independent School to include these kinds of projects in the everyday curriculum. Unfortunately she was unable to accompany the young inventors to Johannesburg as she is currently in Sweden for a month as part of an award for her efforts in environmental education!
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