Female scientists win gold
RANDPARK RIDGE – Rand Park High School pupils claim gold at Eskom Expo for Young Scientists .
When asked what their science project is in layman’s terms, Grade 11 Rand Park High School pupil Emma Wright said it was, “Making rocket fuel go faster.” Of course, there is more to it than that. Wright’s partner on the project, Grade 11 Meghan Sinclair-Black elaborated, “R-candy fuel is quite common but as a science project we wanted to see if we could increase the velocity and take it a step further. So we decided come up with substances that could increase the velocity like iron oxide or charcoal. We tested the velocity over a set distance to see what would produce the best result.”
The research done by the girls involved countless hours of reading and trawling through information. According to Wright, Rand Park High School has been incredibly supportive in their endeavour in terms of answering questions and providing guidance. Sinclair-Black added, “You can look things up on the internet but there are so many different answers out there. We can’t go through them all.”
The total amount of time spent working on the project has been six months, including the experimental stage which had its own challenges. Of course, theory and practice are not always one and the same and sometimes, things go wrong. However, according to Sinclair-Black, “That’s what makes science great. We researched why it happened and then we could explain our research even further. One thing that happened was an air bubble caused an explosion. We’re going to develop that and see if it can increase the velocity even more along with the additives.”
Their hard work and research has paid off. On 1 August they claimed gold for the Best Female Project at the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists held at Wits University.
When asked why they entered the expo, Wright said “We agreed to take every opportunity presented to us this year. This was one of those opportunities.” Sinclair-Black added, “It was a challenge and it developed our knowledge. Coming first was an amazing confidence booster.” Both students say they will continue their research and see how far they can develop it.
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