Today sees the start of another week of Creative Futures STEM 2022 workshop in Ibusa *Achieving Your Potential. This week is in the Town of Ibusa Delta State* and in partnership of the professional women society of Otu Ehulu Fulu(OEF).
The day started with Mr Ayodele Popoola and his military work-out session to get the students into a lively spirit of alertness and working together as a team.
The inauguration of the workshop started with speeches from the following:
1. Hon Mrs Uju Okolo (LGA vic-Chair)
2. Prof Mrs Ngozi Iloba – Vice President Otu Ehulu Fulu
3. Pharm Mrs Vera Nwanze – Chairman, Students Enlightenment, Development and Mentoring Committee of Otu Ehulu Fulu
4. Onowu PG Victor Uchuno – President General of ICDU, Omenka of Ibusa
5. Onowu Anthony Uwajeh (Odua of Ibusa)
6. Emmanuel Kwasa Amatokwu – MC
They all appreciated the members of Otu Ehulu Fulu for brining such an initiative to the town, and encouraged the students to learn from this week so as to achieve their future potential.
94 students from 8 Secondary Schools from Ibusa Town in Delta State, Nigeria, participated in the workshop namely:
Omu Boys = 20
St Thomas’ College = 15
Ibusa Girls = 15
Achalla Mix = 8
St. Augustine College = 15
Ibusa Mix = 15
Izagbo = 4
Uwajeh ext . =24
Total = 94
Following the speeches, Dr Sunday Popo-Ola made an introduction to the students narrating the idea and importance of the 4Cs: Critical thinking, Communication, Creativity and Collaboration. He then introduced the students to Fun Engineering where the students were taught how to build an advanced paper planes, which can fly longer and faster than normal paper planes.
After a short lunch break with Rice and Fish, The afternoon session was run by Mr Ayodele Popoola who introduced the students to Neuroscience: the Science of Smell and Taste Does colour influence flavour identification? Using 5 different flavoured soft drinks and 1 unflavoured clear drink, 3 students from each school took part in the experiment, while the others were observing with great interest.
The students were told to identify the drinks by tasting them while blindfolded and without smelling them before tasting, thus most students misidentified the drink types.
However, the experiment was repeated by allowing the students to first smell the drink before tasting it. More students were able to identify the correct types of drinks. This is because when we perceive flavour, our tongue is doing just a fraction of the work: our brain actually combines what the tongue tastes with what we see, hear, feel and smell.
The exercise teaches the students how to carry out self-directed investigation and how to think critically and logically, to make relationships between evidence and explanation.
We thanked all the teachers, headteachers and volunteers for their support. We are specially grateful to Otu Ehulu Fulu for sponsoring this workshop and our donors through our Justgiving site.
See some of the photos taken during Day 6. To donate to this event, please use the link below:
www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/creativefutures2022
Dr Sunday Popo-Ola
Mrs Vera Nwanze
Mrs Patricia Uwajeh
#CreativeFutures@Ibusa
