10 to fly Kenya’s flag in US tech fair

Keriko secondary school students Esther Amimo(left ) and Salome Njeri with their teacher Peter Mokaya presenting their winning Maths project in school located at Njoro, Nakuru May 24, 2018. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

Three schools will represent Kenya at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the US next week.

Ten students from two public institutions and one international school will present five projects at the global stage that has attracted more than 1,700 high school students to compete for the prestigious awards.

The students are drawn from Keriko Day School, Mary Hill Girls and Shree Cutchi Leva Patel Samaj School, which will present three projects. Keriko and Mary Hill will each present one project.

According to Simon Mururi, an official from the Ministry of Education and the national coordinator of the event, the students were chosen from the National Science and Engineering Fair.

“The students will represent the country in different categories and for the first time since we started competing internationally, a sub-county day school will also be among those to compete after their Mathematics project ranked first,” Mr Mururi said.

“Smaller schools are currently coming to the limelight unlike previous years when only big schools competed in science and engineering fairs. Schools are currently coming up with big innovations,” he said.

The best five projects nationally, he said, are always picked for international competitions. Last year, 350 projects were showcased in the 56th national science and engineering fair.

Global teacher award winner Peter Tabichi, the science patron at Keriko secondary, said the school failed to represent the country last year after failing to raise funds for air tickets.

“It will motivate other upcoming schools to venture in to coming up with projects that can also compete even in the international arenas,” Br Tabichi said.

Participation of schools in science and engineering projects, he said, will also boost innovations as well as improve performance of science and mathematics in schools.