Queen???s College (QC) has emerged the winner of the national leg of the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge 2016 with its Sweet Coconut Grey Water Filtration System, aimed at recycling grey water from domestic uses to flush the toilets in our schools and homes.

The team of Zaria Layne and Tiffany Foster, along with Teacher, Susan Browne, was equally happy and surprised, with the students stating that they did not expect it given all entries were ???good???.

???We weren???t expecting to actually win because we saw all the other good demonstrations put forward by the other schools so we were thinking that ours was ???not as complex??? as the others. But it has proven to be a simple but effective solution,??? Tiffany Foster said, following the announcement yesterday, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Explaining that they started working on the project in September 2015, Zaria Layne said: ???At our school we realised that a lot of water is being flushed down the system each day ??? about more than 1,000 gallons. So we devised a water filter which uses limestone, sugar cane fibre, coconut husks and sugar cane and coconut charcoal, as well as fine sand, to clean the grey water that is obtained from the school???s bathroom sinks and this will be used to flush the toilets once again and recycle and save the school a lot of money with water.???

Queen???s College also won a number of special awards for: Most Community Involvement, Most Creative & Innovative, Best Project Solution and Most Relevant to School or Community.

In addition to receiving a trophy and certificate, the school was the recipient of a computerised mobile science & technology centre (Vernier System) from the Caribbean Science Foundation and six CXC-approved science kits. Each team member will receive a GoPro Hero 4 camera and Samsung Smartwatch, and the supervising teacher an Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

The team leader and supervising teacher of the winning school will represent Barbados at the regional level of the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge, where the regional champion will have the opportunity to win up to US$5,000 for their school.

The team leader and supervising teacher also stand to benefit from an all-expenses-paid seven-day STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Ambassador Programme in Tampa, Florida, in July of this year.

Placing second was the Daryll Jordan Secondary team of: Saskia Singh, Naja Smith, Akilah Rogers, Javan Henry and Kaysha Small. The school in the north presented the project: Advanced Crop Production: Growing in the Cloud, and was rewarded with a computerised mobile science & technology centre (Vernier System); four CXC-approved science kits and a trophy and certificate.

The St. Michael School, represented by Abigail Johnson, was third with the project Solar Power Generator. The school received 10 CXC-approved science kits, a trophy and certificate, and was also the recipient of a number of Special Awards for Best Presentation and Best Use of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

joy-ann.gill@barbados.gov.bb

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