Meet this year's winners of the SAEON Special Awards … and they're all girls!

By Sibongile Mokoena and Amos Nchabeleng, SAEON Tweet

The 2015 Eskom Expo awards ceremony, held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Gauteng in October, provided a prominent platform for the SAEON Special Awards for Best Project in Environmental Monitoring.

Projects in the Environmental category covered a wide variety of topics with great depth, demonstrating scientific knowledge and skills. The adjudicating team had a tough task to select the winners of the SAEON Special Awards.

The SAEON Award in the junior category went to Nokwanda Dube, a Grade 7 learner at Isiqophamithi Primary School in Ladysmith, Northern KwaZulu-Natal, for her project titled Factors affecting wetlands.

After learning about the importance of wetlands at school, Nokwanda became aware of a wetland located near her home. She conducted a survey to assess the neighbouring community's knowledge about the importance of wetlands. When the survey confirmed that there was a need to raise awareness about the value of the wetland, the enterprising young learner designed and distributed a flyer to raise awareness in her church and the community.

Nokwanda is among the 40 learners shortlisted for interviews for participation in international science fairs.

Amber De Decker, a Grade 9 learner at Herschel Secondary School in Cape Town, won a SAEON Special Award for her project Human Disturbance of Blister Bush in Platteklip Gorge. Amber won a silver medal in the overall Eskom Expo and is among the group of learners selected for interviews for participation in international science fairs.

The Blister Bush (Notobubon galbanum) is native to the fynbos biome. It is toxic and causes blisters to skin. Amber investigated the abundance of the Blister Bush on Table Mountain Platteklip Gorge in relation to human disturbance. In her investigation she established that the Blister Bush grows more abundantly in undisturbed wet areas above 750 metres. This rejects the notion that the Blister Bush grows abundantly in areas of human disturbance.

Nontutuzelo Fuleni, a Grade 11 learner at Tiger Kloof Secondary School in Vryburg, North West Province, won the SAEON Special Award in the senior category for her project The kudu's time zone.

Nontutuzelo noticed that there were a significant number of fatal car accidents in the area where she lives, of which the majority were caused by kudus. She decided to put an infrared motion-detecting camera in the kloof one kilometre from the road and ten kilometres from Vryburg. The camera takes pictures of anything that passes in front of it. Nontutuzelo monitored the movement of the kudus by observing the exact time, moon phase, date and month on which the picture was taken in an attempt to come up with a possible time zone in which the kudus were most active.

Nokwanda Dube, a Grade 7 learner from Northern KwaZulu-Natal, won the SAEON Special Award in the junior category and is among 40 learners shortlisted for participation in international science fairs Amber De Decker, a Grade 9 learner from Cape Town, won a SAEON Special Award, a silver medal in the Eskom Expo and and is among 40 learners shortlisted for participation in international science fairs

In her investigation she established that the kudus were active at night. They also seemed to be more active during winter than in summer. She concluded that it would be useful to put up road signs to warn motorists using the road at night to reduce speed and to look out for kudus that may suddenly cross the road and result in a bad accident.

In addition to the SAEON Special Award, Nontutuzelo won two other awards - a silver medal in the overall Eskom Expo and a R50 000 bursary from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is also among the 40 learners shortlisted for interviews for participation in international science fairs.

The SAEON Special Awards serve as encouragement for the learners to pursue their interest in environmental observations. The winners each received a quality pair of binoculars, a book on the environment and a framed certificate.

Eskom Expo for Young Scientists

The three-day Eskom Expo for Young Scientists is South Africa's largest school-level science fair. This year 479 projects by 574 participants were on display in 24 different categories that ranged from microbiology right through to renewable energy.

Learners competed for medals and a number of special prizes up for grabs such as bursaries, laptops, gadgets and trips to other international science fairs - all to the value of more than R2.5 million.

The Eskom Expo was officially opened by the Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Enver Surty, Eskom Group Executive: Transmission and Sustainability, Thava Govender and Chairman of the Eskom Expo Board of Directors, Pieter Pretorius.

Nontutuzelo Fuleni, a Grade 11 learner from the North West Province, won the SAEON Special Award in the senior category, a silver medal in the overall Eskom Expo and a bursary from Wits Award-winning learner Amber De Decker with Sibongile Mokoena, SAEON's Education Outreach Coordinator (right), who headed up the adjudicating team

In his opening speech, Minister Surty encouraged youth to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields of study: "It is very exciting to see such enthusiasm towards science amongst our young people. Science is for the benefit of humanity and making this world a better place and you have the power to make it happen. Scientific advancement is in your hands as young scientists ..."

This was the fourth year that other countries participated in this prestigious science fair, with learners and educators travelling from countries like Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland to attend.

Source: YouTube