Committed to providing opportunities for young innovators in Nigeria to thrive, STEMite Zone Fair, a non-governmental organisation, has rewarded students across public and private schools in Lagos for showcasing homegrown innovations that address some of the challenges they face in their daily lives.
About 35 schools across the state exhibited over 120 science projects at the first-of-its-kind fair, which focused primarily on promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for participants aged between eight and 16.
The winners in the primary, junior and senior secondary categories were rewarded with N500,000 each, while the first and second runners-up received N250,000 and N100,000 each, respectively.
Founder, STEMite Zone Fair, Ibukun Elebute, said the exhibition was to spark curiosity in the minds of young Nigerians to develop innovative solutions that would address some of the local challenges, rather than rely on innovative solutions from abroad.
She noted that the initiative to empower young children through the STEMite platform was due to her passion to address the huge gap in innovative skills among secondary school students.
Elebute, who is based in Canada, said Nigeria must be intentional about empowering the young generation with innovative skills, and the confidence to explore, innovate, and transform their future. This, she said, must begin from the grassroots.
She said: “Our vision is not just to hold a science fair in Lagos, but to ignite a scientific and creative revolution that would impact the world coming out from Nigeria. Our ultimate goal is to see a wave of homegrown innovations springing from the fertile minds of these young scientists and creators over the next decade.
“We aspire to create an environment where Nigerians feel empowered to think critically, question, innovate, and find STEM solutions to everyday challenges,” Elebute added.
Beyond the cash prizes, she noted that the winners would have the opportunity of attending a fellowship programme with some tech companies across the world to help them become experts in their chosen field.
On his part, Senior Special Assistant on Basic and Secondary Education to Lagos State governor, Eniola Opeyemi, applauded the organisation for the innovative event, assuring of government’s readiness to collaborate with the firm to empower more students.
He said: “Seeing beautiful projects by the students, we are going to support this initiative and we are craving that you do more of this to find solutions to the existing problems in the society.”
A STEMite ambassador, who doubles as a Biology teacher at the Jagunmolu Girls Senior Grammar School, Temitope Adekunle, said her students displayed innovative solutions that solve power challenges, recycling; using plastic bottles to make chair and table for reading, and colour psychology which focuses on how colour affect the feeling of people when wearing a particular colour.
One of the judges at the event, Oluwaseun Kayode, commended the students for demonstrating high-level skills. Kayode, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Schoolinka, said: “The truth is that from all the things I have seen so far, the students are building projects from their personal experiences. They are building solutions to the challenges that they are facing themselves, which is very good.”
