KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – Titchfield High School from Portland has defeated 28 teams representing six countries to win the ‘Caribbean Youth Science Forum’ (CYSF) Competition 2016.

The competition, hosted in Trinidad and Tobago between July 31 and August 7 by the National Institute of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (NIHERST), is an annual event that brings together sixth form science students.

The countries represented in the competition were Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana.

For the event students were required to use recyclable materials to design a system to purify at least one litre of water within 30 minutes that was fit for consumption.

They were also required to develop a “kit” for the testing and monitoring of the water quality to indicate its effectiveness. 

Physics teacher and chaperone for the team, Rammon Green, said that the science forum served to “expose the students to what is new in Science as well as to Caribbean persons who are on the cutting edge of Science, in an effort to encourage and inspire them.”  

“Students spent time socialising with scientists from various specialties including astro-biology, genetics and engineering,” Green said.

Members of the Jamaican team, Aliyah Patterson, Teshane Chambers, Damion Mckenzie along with Green were able to attend the forum with sponsorship from the PetroCaribe Development Fund, Sandals Group and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica.

The four-member team from Jamaica was nominated based on the fact that they were finalists in the locally held Scientific Research Council’s (SRC) National Science Fair earlier this year

The school had placed third with their mosquito’ larvicide’ made from nutmeg, which the teacher said was inspired by the many mosquito- borne diseases that have been plaguing the country.

In the meantime Green said that the team would like to patent the ‘larvicide’, but have not been able to, due to financial constraints, adding that the school would love some assistance from other organisations to accomplish this.