Water Solution: Science Comes Alive With #Solve4Ghana Design Challenge 2019

The concept of the Design Challenge has been to ignite in basic school students the passion of addressing community challenges through the practical application of the combined scientific and technological techniques learnt in the classroom. Over 100 lovers of STEM, including 80 students of selected basic schools in Greater Accra and Eastern region converged at the National Museum of Science and Technology on Friday, the 2^nd of August, 2019 to participate in the 3^rd edition of The Exploratory’s flagship event, dubbed the #Solve4Ghana Design Challenge.

The aim of this year’s edition was to provide sustainable and actionable solutions to the problems of excessive waste water and water pollution. The students are familiar with these problems and are witnesses to their effects. Through brainstorming and creative use of low-cost and easily accessible materials, the students turned the auditorium into their science space, arriving at innovative ideas to build working prototypes geared towards showcasing their respective solutions to the challenge.

These eight teams that qualified for the finals were selected from the preliminary challenge the previous week, which involved over 60 teams and 600 students, representing the 17 public basic schools from four locations where The Exploratory operates. Two teams comprising of both Primary and Junior High contingents represented the Accra, Berekuso, Nsawam and Pokuase locations.  Enthused teachers from partner schools and mentors from National Society of Black Engineers, Ashesi University, GhanaThink Foundation played significant roles leading to the success of the event.