Entries for SRC Performing Arts and Poster Competitions Close November 30

Entry for the Scientific Research Council’s (SRC) Science and Technology Month Performing Arts and Poster competitions is now open and will close on November 30.

Coordinator for the Science and Technology Education Unit at the SRC, Amanda McKenzie, told JIS News that the competitions, which are part of the Science and Technology Month of activities being undertaken by the Council, aim to increase students’ awareness, understanding and appreciation for Science and Technology.

Other competitions being spearheaded by the Council during the month include Essay competitions and Oratory competitions.

The Coordinator indicated that entries for these competitions were closed from mid-October, and that the top-six entrants for the Oratory from each region – Central, Western and Eastern – will showcase their entries at the semi-finals that will be held in November.

These will be held in Montego Bay on November 16; in Mandeville, November 23 and Kingston, November 30.

For the Essay Competition, the Coordinator explained that entrants will need to focus on two key topics – ‘How we as Jamaicans utilise our waterways and how we can prevent the pollution of the ecosystem from human and non-human influences’ and ‘How persons can utilise Jamaica’s indigenous knowledge to impact our economy’.

All the competitions are open to students at the primary and secondary levels, except for the Performing Arts competition, which is only open to secondary-level students.

All finals for the competitions will be held in February 2018 at the SRC’s ‘Science in the Gardens’ event.

She explained that the competitions have helped in student development. “Over the years, we have seen that participation, particularly in the Oratory component, has significantly helped students, especially as they move on to the tertiary level, and they have also gone on to become good public speakers, even winning regional competitions,” Ms. McKenzie said.

She also noted that the competitions assist in training the students in explaining scientific information to an audience in the most basic way.

In the meantime, Ms. McKenzie said that the Oratory and Essay competitions this year are part of the Jamaica-South Africa bilateral cooperation building youth engagement arrangement, “which is seeking to get persons involved in the conversation of how it is that as a nation we can target socio-economic development by looking at indigenous knowledge”.

“In Jamaica, a lot of people are familiar with the use of folklore in medicine. We now want to harness all that information as a nation, to develop jobs and new products, as there is a new thrust to use these in the pharmaceutical as well as the nutraceutical industries,” she said.

Winners of the competitions will be provided with prizes through Dolphin Cove, Kirk Distributors, the Youth Link, Jamaica Biscuit Company, Wisynco, and Adam and Eve Day Spa.

Additionally, winners (students and teachers) will receive trophies, certificates of participation, book vouchers and gift certificates.

Entries for the competitions must be submitted using the guidelines and registration form, which can be found at www.src-jamaica.org., and should be sent to the Scientific Research Council c/o the Science and Technology Unit, P.O. Box 350, Hope Gardens Complex, Kingston 6.