Young Scientists on Internships

JULY 28, 2009

NCST SPONSORS HIGH SCHOOL SCIENTISTS ON INTERNSHIPS

AT LOCAL UNIVERSITIES

Five high school science students currently on the National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST) Internship Programme, are spending the summer holidays toiling in university labs; and they say that they are finding it enjoyable.

Selected based on their high level of participation in inter-school science activities,  and the recommendations of their science teachers, the five boys  are getting hands-on experience for one month in various areas of science & technology as encouragement to continue their studies and pursue careers in these disciplines.

Fabian Ellis, Grade Ten student of Cornwall College is assigned to the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI) where he is constructing three dimensional molecules using computer software. His Grade Eleven colleague from Anchovy High School, Chueyen McIntyre is at another end of the same faculty growing plantlets and bacteria at the Biotechnology Centre.

Grade Thirteen Student, Princeton Brown of Titchfield High School is also doing work in the life sciences where he is recording bacteria and other material in waste water samples at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at the University of Technology.

Over in Mandeville, Camperdown High School Grade Twelve student Nicholas Welsh is conducting experiments on fuel production, oil extraction and paper making at the Northern Caribbean University College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

The internships, funded by the National Foundation for Development of Science and Technology (NFDST), include accommodation, a stipend and laboratory work supervised by senior lecturers and professors.