Shadia Akter, a Grade 11 learner from New Orleans Secondary School in Paarl, was recently rewarded for her creative and problem-solving research, when she won a silver medal for South Africa at the Buca International Music, Science, Engineering and Energy Fair (IMSEF) in Turkey. She competed in the Maths and Computer Science category.

Her science trip to Turkey began in 2020 when as a Grade 10 learner she attended the Science Buddies Science Club, offered on Saturdays by SUNCEP, the centre for pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. When Covid struck, she stuck to her self-education and, among other things, attended an Eskom Expo workshop on how to master the Honeycode application. This led to her project to help schools in effectively scanning large numbers of learners in the school for Covid-19.

After her award, Shadia said that winning a silver medal at such a respected science show is ecstatic and at the same time surreal. "I gained new knowledge and refined my skills as a young scientist. I feel blessed to be able to participate in an event held to spread the spirit of scientific research and art to the world. It was nerve-wrecking to be part of a world-class science show and to compete against 166 projects from 27 countries, but I'm very grateful that I did. "

Eskom Expo for Young Scientists in South Africa is affiliated with the most prestigious and competitive international science fairs in the world. This year, 16 South African learners had the opportunity to internationally connect with their peers and learn more about their research.

Mrs Erika Hoffman from SUNCEP who is the regional coordinator of Expo for Young Scientists in the Stellenbosch region, believes that Shadia is an example to many pupils when it comes to perseverance and purposeful research. The effort she put into her project was definitely rewarded.