GHS wins special award in Sagicor Visionaries Challenge

The St Vincent Girls’ High School (GHS) won the “Best Presentation” award in the regional leg of the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge held in Barbados last weekend.{{more}}

The school was represented by Raeisa Byron-Cox, the leader of the “Paper Bricks” Project that won at the local level, and Lenski Adams, teacher of Physics at the GHS.

Twelve schools from across the region participated in the April 12 to 13 showdown at the Lloyd Erskinson Sandiford Centre in Barbados. The competition called on them to devise sustainable solutions to problems in their school or community.

For their efforts, the Girls’ High School walked away with a trophy and US$500. Raeisa and her teacher will also have an all expenses paid tour of Tampa, Florida, in July for seven days. While in Florida, the two will visit the Kennedy Space Centre and Disney World, among other places of interest.

“Paper Bricks” is a project in which recycled paper is used as an alternative energy source to coal and charcoal and other fossil fuels.

Adams told SEARCHLIGHT the process to recycle the paper is “simple yet effective.”

“Our presentation booth was very detailed with a banner, screen, the molding mechanism, paper bricks, and a couple items in which the bricks can be used, like a coal pot, steam iron “goose” and camping equipment,” Adams said.

He said, during Raeisa’s presentation to eight judges, she was able to capture the attention of the public, with their innovation.

The presentation of the project entailed identifying the problem of the abundance of used paper in the environment and a step by step process of how the bricks were made. The environmental, social and economic impacts were also noted.

The Bishop Martin High School from Belize emerged the overall winner of the competition, with their “Coconuts 4 Life” project. They took home a trophy and US$5,000. The first runnerup was Wolmer’s Boys School of Jamaica, with their project: Electro-Light; Making your electricity bill lighter. They were rewarded with a trophy and US$3,000. Third place was taken by the Naparima Girls’ High School of Trinidad and Tobago, who won with their project “So Who is the Farmer in your Neighbourhood?”.

Along with the top three prizes, special awards were also given to projects for presentation, project design, innovation and relevance to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (S.T.E.M.).

Exhibition attendees lauded the students for their creative ideas and the hard work put into their displays.