PRESEC Legon wins SHS Space Science competition

The Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High (PRESEC), Legon in Accra has emerged heroes in the First Senior High School Space Science competition in Ghana.

The boys overcame a stiff competition from three brilliant female students from the Methodist Girls’ Senior High School (MEGISS) at Manfe Akwapem in the Eastern Region, to be declared winners.

The Space Science competition was part of the World Space Week, a global event that celebrates the contributions of Space Technology to human life.

The 2018 World Space Week, hosted by the All Nations University College in Koforidua, featured the First Space Research and Presentation Competition for High Schools in the country.

Outstanding presentation

At the end of the first round, the three bold and brilliant girls from MEGISS made an outstanding presentation which earned them a standing ovation from the audience.

Two other schools, PRESEC, Legon, Accra, and the Pentecost Senior High School (PENSEC) in Koforidua, graduated with them to the final round.

However, in the final round, the three reserved but tactical boys from PRESEC emerged the High School Space Icons for 2018.

The conductor of the event, Mr Ernest Teye Matey, who was a member of the development team behind Ghana’s first satellite, GhanaSat-1, said the event was organised to use Space Technology to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Ghana, and to promote quality education, gender equality and innovation for Ghanaian students.

He said the satellite engineers, after the GhanaSat-1 achievement, have organised similar educative programmes for senior high schools in using the satellite as a tool to deliver knowledge and training in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics and Innovations (STEMI).

"The whole idea for this competition is to get the students to begin to see the Internet as a useful learning tool and that is why the research topics given them had most of its findings on the Internet,” he said.

Mr Matey explained that due to their performance, the students from MEGISS will be considered by the All Nations Universty College’s Space Systems and Technology Laboratory (ANU-SSTL) outreach office as their SDG ambassadors to high schools for 2018/2019.

Next phase

Mr Matey said with the successful organisation of the 2018 competition which was on a pilot project, the competition would henceforth be an annual event, explaining that “next year, we plan an inter-regional research competition of the same".

The spirit of the All Nations University College ANU-SSTL to promote Space Technology in Ghana and their already accomplished ventures attracted the Executive Director of the World Space Week Global to deliver the keynote address for the event in Ghana aside from the over 4,000 events happening throughout the world.