SMK Bukit Jambul Team On Song For Mighty Win

GEORGE TOWN: Using the appeal of a hit song by boy band One Direction, the team from SMK Bukit Jambul stayed focused in their quest and came out winners among upper secondary schools in the Penang challenge of the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds competition.

“The audience mainly consisted of youngsters, so they could relate well to the song.

“It was our strategy to get them to laugh and pay attention to our presentation,” said Fourth Former T. Thevesh after the prize-giving ceremony at 1st Avenue Mall on Satur-day.

He and schoolmates T. Shadheeskumar and Kaysha Shamini Chandran got the crowd hooked during their oral presentation with lines from the British-Irish group’s What Makes You Beautiful.

As for the design of the touch-operated lamp in the hands-on challenge, the team said they tried to put themselves in the shoes of a rheumatoid arthritis patient who has difficulty turning knobs and pressing buttons using fingers.

“We tried to make the lamp ‘grandma-friendly’ so that it could be switched on and off by the whole palm rather than the fingers,” said Kaysha Shamini.

SMJK Heng Ee and Bukit Mertajam High School came in second and third respectively.

In the lower secondary category, Penang Free School students Vishpal Singh Ravindar Singh, Lim Chin Hai and Aaron Lugun Raj won first place with their model of a solar still that incorporated 18 different scientific principles.

SMK Dato Onn and SMK Bukit Jambul came in second and third respectively.

The champion teams won RM5,000 while the second and third placed teams won RM2,000 and RM1,000 respectively. The teams also won book vouchers worth RM300 each.

Cash prizes of RM2,000, RM1,000 and RM750 were given to the top three schools.

Jointly organised by Star Publications (M) Bhd and RHB Banking Group, the Science, Maths and general knowledge competition is held in 14 states before all the champions converge in Kuala Lumpur for the national finals in October.

The next challenge will be held in Selangor this weekend.

The upper secondary winners at the national challenge will win a trip to the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Ireland, sponsored by Penang Medical College.

For more details on the competition, log on to thestar.com.my/mightyminds.

For enquiries on contest registration, call The Star’s Customer Care Unit at 03-7967-1777 or 03-7967-1703.