Students of the Nobles International Secondary School, Uyo, has joined other students across the country to showcase innovation fit for real life situations.
Mrs Rebecca Ekong, Science Teacher for project, at the 26th National Jets’ Competition in Abuja on Friday, said the innovations would proffer solutions to new ways of generating energy for domestic and industrial use.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the competition was organised by the Department of Technology and Science Education, Federal Ministry of Education.
The theme of the competition is: ” Biodiversity:A Panacea for Energy Generation for National Development.”
Ekong said the students created a biogas digester by collecting dung in a digester to produce energy for different purposes.
According to her, the relevance of the Innovations cuts across different sectors.
“We qualified for two categories of the competition – National team project at the state level and free choice project.
“We want to tell the world that it is possible to get biogas from poetry dungs and it is readily available. Past projects had been done on biogas using animal dung particularly cow dung but cows are not readily available in every part of the country.
“This is because some cows can survive better in the north and some better in the south. So we decided to work on something that is generic like the chicken which can be reared anywhere.
“The purpose of this project is a new way of generating biogas, cheaper than using petrol, for example, one Kilogram of gas is equivalent to a two litres of Petrol.
“So I am of the opinion that Nigeria government can start looking at how to rely more on gas to cut down the use of Petrol,” she said.
Speaking on the other innovations called kinetic tiles, she said the tiles harvest energy from human footsteps.
“The idea was conceived after the announcement of the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, which we felt would cause untold hardship on the people because the price of Petro had increased.
” We observed that a lot of Nigerians now go their usual route by trekking long distance to safe cost.
“We noticed a lot of people were complaining about the new state of things so we taught of making trekking which is a good source of exercise for healthy living and movement from one place to another more rewarding.
“And that Nigerians don’t see trekking as suffering but get rewarded at the end of the day when this innovation produces energy.
“So, these tiles, if placed in a place to attract traffic, energy is generated as people step on it and as energy is generated, it is stored in a battery that can be used later,” she added.
Also, Mrs Christiana Obaje, Deputy Director, Department of Technology and Science Education ,Federal Ministry of Education, said the innovations would be translated into real life situations.
Obaje said the competition had been rewarding while charging state governors to support their students to come out for such competitions.
“It has been very good because we keep on improving every year. This is one of our best competition though in the previous years because of budgetary allocation, we have so many states on ground.
“For this year, we don’t have as much as we expected because of fund. Some of the state coordinators complain that they were not given fund to attend the competition and that is our major challenge.
“However, the project assessment is going on and the quiz competition has been concluded. We are seeing this projects being translated into realities of the society because every year we select a theme and students bring project based on the theme we have selected.
“Whatever the students are doing is making impact both on them and the country at large,” she said.
A student showcasing her school’s innovation, Abasiakanano Antia-Obong, said it entailed creating awareness on ways to make the environment clean through collection of waste and converting same to energy.
She called on government to come in and assist by asking homes to save up their biodegradable materials and donate them to help generate electricity around the nation.
Also, Mfonbong Udoubak, a teacher said that Nigerians from the poorest households could also take advantage of the innovations to support their energy supply.
Schools across the country that participated in the competition include: Monsuru Agoro Memorial Primary School, Lagos, All Saints’ primary school, Onitsha and General Murtala Mohammed College, Yola.
Others are: Oyemekun Grammer School Akure, Government Science Technical College, Garki, Junior Girls Secondary School, Kaduna, among others. (NAN)
