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Republic Polytechnic Scientific Thinking Programme 2007 receives the largest project submissions Singapore, 28 June 2007 -- Fruits have great nutritional value towards the health of the body. Some of us even rely on fruits as our main source of vitamins and minerals. But ever thought that the fruit we eat could even be the source of electricity when the lights go off? This and four other science projects tackling real life challenges done by secondary school students will be presented during the Scientific Thinking Programme 2007 (STP) Award Presentation & Closing Ceremony that will be held in Republic Polytechnic on Friday, 29 June 2007 from 3pm to 5pm. These five projects were selected from 39 projects’ report submission and emerged as the outstanding projects chosen from the 39 final project presentations made during the Project Presentation that was held on 20 June 2007. STP is a yearly programme organised by Republic Polytechnic with the aim to stimulate young people’s natural curiosity and nurture interest in science and technology, and at the same time provide a platform for secondary school teachers and students to conduct scientific projects and practise scientific thinking skills. To date, more than 30 secondary schools have participated in the four runs of the programme (STP 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007). The 6-month programme sees the projects’ subjects proposed by the student-teacher teams and mentored by the polytechnic’s staff. They guided each team from idea formulation, experiment design to data collection, analysis and presentation of their findings. Dr. Terence Chong, Director, School of Applied Science, Republic Polytechnic says, “Through STP, we encourage the students to look at everyday life and seek out innovative ways of solving problems. This programme provides a platform for secondary school teachers and students to conduct scientific projects and helps the students practice in developing scientific thinking skills. The five projects presentations will see these students coming up with fascinating discoveries from the experiments that they had conducted over the last six months.” The brief of the final five outstanding projects that will be presented during the Awards Presentation are: 1) Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) Analysis of ethyl carbamate in popular alcoholic beverages sold in Singapore Ethyl Carbamate is a carcinogen formed during fermentation processes. The aim of the present study is to detect the presence of ethyl carbamate in alcoholic beverages found in Singapore. Six different kinds of beverages were tested for the presence of ethyl carbamate using thin layer chromatography. Results showed that of the six beverages, the presence of ethyl carbamate is not found in two beverages; red wine and wincarnis wine. The results were explained in terms of both experimental and technical errors. 2) Chestnut Drive Secondary School Good & strong shopping bags are not necessarily harmful to the environment The strength of various plastic and paper bags from different companies were tested by testing the amount of weight each bag is able to sustain and the time each bag can hold before tearing. Results show that plastic bags are stronger than paper bags. The present study proposed that using plastic bags may not be harmful to the environment depending on whether the plastic bags are being reused. 3) German European School Effect of rice bran lipase in cleansing the oil spills in water The present study aims to test the effectiveness of rice bran lipase as an environmentally friendly alternative to clean oil spills. Lipase was extracted from defatted rice bran and added to a mixture of oil and either tap water or sea water. The pH values of the test mixtures were recorded and a drop in pH value would indicate the cleansing effect of rice bran lipase. It was found that the cleansing effect of rice bran lipase is only found in the tap water mixture and not the sea water mixture. It was concluded that rice bran lipase may not be an effective alternative to cleaning oil spills but may serve as a household detergent for cleaning of vegetable oil. 4) Naval Base Secondary School The use of limes to generate electric voltage that is comparable to a car battery This project aims to study the use of limes to generate high electric voltage that is comparable to that of a car battery. Through some studies and research, natural resources like fruits/ vegetables was able to produce electricity that can be used to power some appliances. The study was first done by determining the best source of fruits / vegetables that can generate a certain voltage. From there, suitable electrodes were used and the electric circuit set up. In the process, a lot of problems aroused to increase the electric voltage of the juices so that it is comparable to that of a car battery. An attempt using the electric voltage generated from limes to light up as many LED bulbs as possible was made. 5) Sembawang Secondary School To investigate the navigation skills of ants under different light intensities The present study aims to study the effect of changing light intensity on the behaviour and navigational skills of ants. Observations of ants in different light conditions found that ants kept away from direct sunlight, avoided physical barriers and showed a preference in taking straight and event route. Navigational skill, measured by the amount of time taken to navigate through a self-made maze, was the best at night. Each team will give a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation on their projects, after which they will showcase their presentation posters and experiment setup. For more information on the programme, please log on to http://www.rp.sg/stp. About : About Republic Polytechnic The first educational institution in Singapore to adopt the Problem-Based Learning approach for all its diploma programme, Republic Polytechnic has five schools and two centres offering twenty six diploma courses in Information & Communications Technology, Engineering, Applied Science, Technology for the Arts, Sports, Health & Leisure, Innovation and Enterprise, and Culture and Communication. Republic Polytechnic is committed to nurturing innovation and entrepreneurial learning in an environment that develops problem-solving process skills and a life-long learning attitude. Its holistic, broad-based curriculum, covering culture, enterprise development and cognitive processes, prepares students for an active and meaningful role in society. Republic Polytechnic strives for excellence by achieving various national and international accreditations, including People Developer Standards, ISO9001, ISO14001, OHSAS 18001, Singapore Quality Class, Singapore Innovation Class, and the Singapore Health Awards (Gold). For more information, visit http://www.rp.sg Media Contacts: Benjamin Chow (Mr) Administrative Officer Office of Corporate Communications, Republic Polytechnic Tel: 6510 3251 Email: Alshidiq Abdul Samad (Mr) Associate, iBRAND Hp: 9145 8023 Tel: 6222 8968 Email: Submitted by iBRAND, iBRAND Strategy Group Pte Ltd on Thursday, 28 June 2007 at 3:19 PM Category: Education |
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