TIME TO CREATE!
This week in schools, teachers and their students are engaged in the CREATE step of the engineering design process! Throughout July they identified common challenges in the agricultural sector in Northern Uganda, then researched different solutions, brainstormed how they could use their science and math skills to design a brand new (or improved!) solution, made engineering plans and gathered materials...and now it is time to CREATE their first prototypes!
At Rapha Girls' School, teachers have designed an agricultural engineering unit on solutions to the challenges that persistent drought causes in their community. The students are designing small, low-cost greenhouses made from locally available resources to trap water released during the evapotranspiration process of plants. These greenhouses will prevent the water from evaporating so that the plants inside can reuse it once it has condensed back into the ground.
In previous weeks students have done research on the water cycle as well as conducted experiments testing how much moisture different plants release during evapotranspiration. Now they are applying this knowledge to create their greenhouses! Each team of Yiya students at Rapha is building their own "mini-greenhouse" for the first prototype, which they will test later in August once all greenhouses are complete!
See the photos below of students building their greenhouses! Well done, Rapha girls!