Eskom Expo for Young Scientists

Ofentse Litsele, winner of the Eskom
Award for Best Development project,
with Mr Parthy Chetty, Chairman of the
Eskom Expo for Young Scientists

Supernova went to check out the northern Gauteng regional finalists of the annual Expo for Young Scientists,the biggest science fair in South Africa for grade 5 to 12 learners. The expo was held at LC de Villiers, the University of Pretoria's sports grounds, from 31 August to 1 September. The expo showcased 389 projects from 52 schools and over 517 learners. We were more than impressed with the bright ideas we found there.

Launched in 1980, the Eskom Expo brings together learners, teachers, parents and educational bodies from all over South Africa and aims to encourage young South Africans to explore the variety of careers open to them and increase awareness of the wonders of science, technology, engineering, maths and innovation.

Learners can enter in over 25 categories, ranging from alternative and renewable energy right through to physics and astronomy, and they are all competing to be selected to participate in the prestigious national finals from 4 to 6 October 2012 in Boksburg, Johannesburg.

There is variety of fantastic prizes up for grabs at the national finals, including a mobile science lab, laptops, university bursaries and much more.

Marlene Meyer, winner of the
Eskom Award for Best Female project,
with Mr Parthy Chetty

Out of the 253 female learners from Gauteng who entered this year, Hoërskool Waterkloof Grade 9 learner Marlene Meyer walked away with the Eskom Award for Best Female project for her plant science project entitled 'Mysterious fairy circles', aimed at finding the cause of fairy circles (grassless patches of vegetation) in the Namib desert.

“My project took me five months to complete and this involved reading up on plants of southern Africa, testing various plant species and extensive online research,” says Meyer. She conducted numerous tests to identify what caused the fairy circles and concluded that these resulted from a poisoning of the area by a plant species called Euphorbia.

“My big sister, who had participated in the Eskom Expo, was very supportive. She encouraged me when my plant samples would fail and I had to start all over. Some of the challenges I encountered included the various plant species I used during my investigation drying - before producing results.”

Meyer’s biggest lesson from her science project was that “there is an answer for all questions.”

Juggling school, homework, studying for the exams and his Eskom Expo project didn’t stop Modiri Secondary School grade 10 learner Ofentse Litsele from taking home the Eskom Award for Best Development project.

“My project was an improvement of my last year’s entry, and this year I won,” smiled Ofentse.

After observing severe damage caused by invasive alien plants in his neighbourhood, Ofentse decided to come up with a solution to eradicate invasive alien plants. Ofentse investigated an alternative and environmentally friendly manner of eradicating invasive plant species by using mycoherbicides, a fungus that works as a chemical plant killer. “The spores of the mycoherbicide penetrate the plant tissue causing a disease that kills the alien species.”

Pretoria Boys High School took home two of the top awards. Grade 10 learners Levi Benjamin Homann and Paul Kim were awarded the Eskom Award for Best Energy Efficiency project for their 'Solar Powered Fish' project. The Eskom Award for Best Energy Efficiency project went to Grade 10 learners Sonke Mkhabela and Matthew Keevy for their 'Eco Lights' project.

At the regional finals, 77 gold medals were awarded, 126 silver and 97 bronze. From the 77 gold medals, a delegation of 36 projects were selected to attend the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists National Finals.

Regional Director Awie Duvenage says, “We are proud of all our learners and congratulate our delegation of 30 heading to the nationals in October. We know they will fly the northern Gauteng flag high.”

For more information about the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, please visit: www.exposcience.co.za

 

 

The Supernova team would like to congratulate all the learners that took part for contributing their amazing ideas to science. Your initiative and dedication is inspiring! We wish the finalists all the best at the nationals!

Amuse

Book your place now for lots of holiday fun!

Vet Books for Africa!

The Supernova team recently heard of an interesting initiative called Vet Books for Africa. We asked a student who is part of this initiative to tell us more about what they do. Here’s what he had to say:

Vet Books for Africa, is a project that was started in 1993 with the sole purpose of promoting Veterinary Science in Africa. Every two years, a group of eight Veterinary students embark on a six week long journey to take books (donated to us by Books for Africa Organisation and The Silent Heroes Foundation) and other much needed supplies to Veterinary Universities in Africa.

 

Book handover at the University of Zambia

Veterinary Science is a lot more than treating sick dogs and cats – Veterinarians ensure that the animals we use for meat and milk are healthy, they make sure that diseases from animals don’t cause harm to humans; and Vets also play a large role in conservation of wildlife. You can see that Veterinarians are people that a developing continent like Africa, need more of. With our mission, we aim to give a helping hand to the African Veterinary students of tomorrow. By doing this we believe that we will contribute to Africa becoming a much better agricultural continent and have a much better means of looking after their wildlife. We would love to see Africa come to its

full potential and have its natural beauty conserved

for hundreds of years to come.

 

What can you do to get involved?

You can go like our page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/VetBooksForAfrica) and follow what we’re getting up to now and during the outreach trip (we leave on the 29^th of October 2012). Furthermore, we are still desperately in need of funding for our trip. So if you know of anyone that would like to make a donation, please contact us at info@vetbooksforafrica.org.

-Michael Ferreira

 

The Supernova team wishes the organisation the best of luck with all their future endevours!

 

IZUZU South Africa generously provided vehicles for the exciting journey

 

Olympic champ braais for charity

Cameron van der Burgh
wields his braai tongs

On Friday 24 August 2012, Olympic Gold Medalist Cameron van der Burgh wielded his braai tongs to feed hungry mouths at Abangani Enkosini, a Nashua Children's Charity Foundation (NCCF) supported children's home in Alexandra Township. BK Publishing Director/Publisher Benoit Knox and Supernova Editor Andrea Vermaak were there to get the scoop and support the initiative.



Cameron van der Burgh
and Jan Braai were happy
to braai boerewors for the kids
 

van der Burgh received a cow from Jan Braai, head of the National Braai Day initiative, in honour of achieving a gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at the London 2012 Olympics. Not certain what to do with this sizeable gift, mentor and friend Ryk Neethling, prompted van der Burgh to donate the cow to Neethling’s charity of choice. Valued at R7000, Jan Braai turned the cow into 140kgs of boerewors, which was which was subsequently braaied by Jan, van der Burgh and Neethling at Abangani Enkosini.

 

 



 

 

 

van der Burgh commented on his donation and helping to braai for the kids: “I've had a lot of support from everyone, but even if I did not have an ounce of support, I'd still do this. Supporting the kids is the least I can do to give back. Given the opportunity to do this, I want to do it again. If I can alleviate bad conditions for an afternoon, why not? I challenge other medallists to do the same thing.”

 



Cameron van der Burgh with children at Abangani Enkosini

 

Neethling also commented on why it is so important to give back: “I was brought up to understand how fortunate I am and opportunities to improve the community are more important than winning an Olympic medal.”

 

Cameron van der Burgh enjoys a song and dance

 

Cameron van der Burgh poses with the
Olympic issue of Supernova

Ryk Neething and Supernova Editor Andrea Vermaak

Shaggy reviewed in Literator

Literator

Shaggy:
14 Rather Amusing Rambles
 

Shaggy: 14 Rather Amusing Ramblesby Anton Krueger and Pravasan Pillay, recently received a review in Literator: Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies.

The review was written by M.L. Crous of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
 

Veertien monoloë deur skarminkels, losers en idiote

Tradisioneel is 'n shaggy dog 'n story besonder langdradige relaas vol kenmerkende irrelevante insidente en die slot grens dikwels aan die absurde. Dit is wat die skrywers van hierdie veertien monoloë probeer nadoen, maar dis opvallend dat hulle stories kort en soms op die man af is. Hulle hou doelbewus nie by die oorspronklike patroon nie.

 

Die outeurs spot met die akademie, lewer kommentaar op uitbuiters en manipuleerders en soos wafferse nasate van Horatius en Juvenalis val hulle bepaalde swakhede in die samelewing aan. Die sprekers in die monoloë is figure wat ‟n mens in die alledaagse raakloop: die afgeleefde akademikus, die uitbuiterkunstenaar, die grapjas, ‟n eertydse satanis en die skottelgoedwasser-cum-taikoen wat die spot dryf met die Kambodjaanse bevrydingstryd en soos ‟n wafferse seerower Jenny in besit is van verskeie besighede in Margate. Margate in Natal en Germiston aan die Rand speel ‟n sentrale rol. Margate spog selfs met sy eie M.I.T.

Soos dit ‟n satirikus betaam, dra die skrywers ook deeglike kennis van die konteks wat betref dit wat hulle bespotlik wil voorstel. “The Beans” handel byvoorbeeld oor iemand wat ‟n bemarkingsvergadering toespreek en dan die beeld van ‟n blikkie bone gebruik om sy punt oor te dra. Uit sy reaksie op die onsinnighede wat die groep kwytraak, lei ‟n mens af dat alles op dowe ore val en hy sluit sy voorstelling met ‟n kragwoord af.

 

Deurgaans word ook met eietydse studente se verwysingsraamwerk gespot. Hulle kan assosieer met popkultuur en is dikwels in staat om die belangrikste literatuurteoretiese begrippe uit te spu, maar tot meer as dit is hulle nie in staat nie. Ook feministiese herskrywings en herlesings van byvoorbeeld die geskiedenis word onder die loep geneem. In “The Director” word ‟n Jamie Uys-gedenklesing gelewer en spot die spreker heerlik met die Suid-Afrikaanse filmbedryf met sy toilethumor.

 

‟n Satirikus is nie altyd te eksplisiet nie. Hy spot deur middel van die taal, deur middel van ironie en deur onderspeling en ‟n mate van oordrywing. Soos met alle goeie satires is dit belangrik dat ‟n mens dit in lewende lywe sien afspeel. Om Nataniël of tannie Evita op papier te lees, is nie naastenby so snaaks soos om hulle op die verhoog te sien nie. Myns insiens is dit ook die geval met hierdie“nogal amusante” stories. Dikwels lees ‟n mens dit en dink: ja en ? – die subtiele humor ten spyt.

Reference

Crous, M.L. 2011. Veertien monoloë deur skarminkels, losers en idiote. Literator.32(3):195-196.

Visit the Literator website: http://www.literator.org.za/index.php/literator

A greener generation of SodaStream

The Cage Eco-Exhibit
on Contitution Hill, Johannesburg

No childhood should be without the memory of a SodaStream carbonator filling bottles of yummy beverages with bubbles at home. Tree-huggers Director/Publisher Benoit Knox and Supernova Editor Andrea Vermaak relived their childhoods at the launch of the new SodaStream Home Carbonation Systems on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on Thursday 16 August 2012. They were treated to delicious carbonated flavoured beverages and the most decadent rainbow cake made from SodaStream syrups before being introduced to the impressive, new 'greener' generation of SodaStream systems.

The new generation of SodaStream fits well into the modern lifestyle with its chic new designs and funky flavoured syrups, including Ice Tea, Sport, Energy and Sugar-free flavours, among the classic variations. The new SodaStream systems are, most importantly, more cost effective, healthier than ever and environmentally friendly, allowing families to contribute to a 'greener' community.

The average South African family consumes and discards about 5078 bottles every three years. It is further estimated that 141 billion bottles and cans are not recycled every year. Alternatively, each SodaStream reusable carbonating bottle is estimated to save the environment from 2000 bottles and cans in three years. By giving the consumer an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bottles by using water straight from the tap to create carbonated flavoured beverages, SodaStream makes traditional store-bought beverage bottles obsolete. This results in less plastic manufactured, less plastic waste and less transportation of bottled beverages. Each SodaStream bottle is also uniquely designed and manufactured to be free of BPA, a plastic compound some believe to disrupt hormones.

Every year SodaStream provides 600 million litres of carbonated beverage to millions of households, making it one of the largest beverage companies in the world. One SodaStream carbonator makes 60 or 110 litres, equivalent to 170 or 310 aluminum cans! When empty, the carbonator is refilled and reused, ready to make more fizzy and tasty soda whenever you want it.

The advantages of SodaStream's Home Carbonation System include:

1. Convenience: No need to carry heavy bottles from the store. The SodaStream system is simple to use and requires no batteries or electricity.
2. Environmentally friendly: SodaStream is an 'Active Green' solution that minimises the huge eco-footprint caused by the manufacture, transport and waste of plastic bottles.
3. Variety: SodaStream offers a wide variety of flavours to suit everyone’s taste including regular, diet, natural, fruity flavours, ice tea, energy and sport drinks, tonic and many more.
4. Space saver: No need to store bottles of beverages or empty bottles for recycling at home.
5. Personalisation: Make drinks just the way you love them… more bubbles, less bubbles, sweeter or lighter, you can even even create your own flavour!
6. Family fun: The system is quick and easy to use. It's fun for everyone and kids just love it!
7. Value for money: Great savings compared to pre-packed carbonated water and beverages.
8. Satisfaction guaranteed: SodaStream drinks makers are of extremely high quality and include a money-back satisfaction guarantee.

Through SodaStream International's global environmental campaign 'Help Free the World from Bottles',The Cage Eco-Exhibit helps drive the message home that plastic bottles contribute to the consumption of resources and to the destruction of our planet. You can view The Cage at its new home on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Francois Dippenaar, managing director of SodaStream South Africa, states, “SodaStream's vision is to create a world free from bottles. We are committed to continuously improving as an earth-friendly brand and having a positive impact on our environment. The South African constitution endorses this vision, having become the first constitution in the world to include environmental rights. To quote, 'Everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being.' That is why this iconic location, with its view of the Constitutional Court, is the perfect home for The Cage Eco-Exhibit.”

Make a promise today for a greener tomorrow by signing SodaStream's 'Free the World from Bottles' pledge on their Facebook page, SodaStream South Africa:

http://www.facebook.com/sodastreamsa/app_190345487759946#!/sodastreamsa

Oh, and don't forget to purchase one of the new SodaStream systems for a better tomorrow! Visit the SodaStream website for more details: http://www.sodastream.co.za/

Supernova is one year old!

Supernova issue 6 cover

Supernova has kept kids curious for a whole year! To continue in the spirit of new discoveries, issue 6 of Supernova takes young minds on yet another amazing journey, this time back to the age of the dinosaurs. Not just any old dinos though – great beasts that lived right here in South Africa! We look at recent discoveries made in the Free State, among other amazing findings.

We also take the kids on a virtual flight from O.R. Tambo to Cape Town International aboard a Boeing 737. While aboard, we look at how an aircraft works and all the procedures that need to be followed from take-off to decent.

While in Cape Town, we check out Table Mountain, recently named one of the New7Wonders of Nature.


We also take a leisurely stroll through fynbos, the endemic biome of the Cape.

Issue 6 also walks kids through how the lungs work, one breath at a time.

All the regular fun stuff is, of course, also included to keep young minds active and curious.

Happy reading!

For more information or to subscribe, email andrea@bkpublishing.co.za or call +27 12 342 5347. Visit the Supernova website: www.supernovamagazine.co.za