By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The University of Sierra Leone has concluded an online virtual science fair aimed at motivating more secondary school girls to study Science courses at university.
The fair, which was organised in December, encouraged participants from nine schools, which included Annie Walsh Memorial, Grammar School and Bo school, to submit written projects online about issues facing society.
Speaking at the prize giving ceremony, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Sierra Leone and Principal Fourah Bay College, Professor Sahr Gbamanja, said the projects were assessed by lecturers at Cambridge University in England and the competition had been inspired by a collaboration between his university and Cambridge. He said Cambridge had earlier, through its Bannerman Science Foundation, organised a premier science workshop in Freetown in 2012, which had inspired them to conduct a previous fair that attracted various secondary schools in the Western Area.
“Such science fairs introduce students to the world of scientific research and Engineering, giving them a hands-on-enquiry-based approach to identify and design solutions to everyday problems in their community,” said Professor Gbamanja, adding that after the Ebola outbreak he would launch the Gbamanja Science Foundation as an offshoot of the Women-in-Science project.
The representative of the Sierra Leone Women in Science (SLAWISE) Madam Tejan Cole, mechanical engineer, encouraged girls to apply for more science courses as it would enable them help their community in more innovative ways.
In his contribution, the head of the Mathematics department at Fourah Bay College, Professor John Kamara, disclosed that the University of Sierra Leone was committed to taking science education to “another level.” He said his department would soon produce the appropriate literature to fill the gap in the sciences and mathematics so that the project could be fast-tracked.
“We are currently working on it and it will come out soon,” he assured.
Betty Paula Nyamgba from Annie Walsh Memorial School, who won the first prize with Le 900,000, wrote on reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections.
© Politico 22/01/15
