By Sarah Seltz | Development and Grants Manager
Maritina is a student at Nyaka Vocational Secondary School who traveled to Malawi in 2017 to attend the 3rd annual WiSci Girls STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) Camp. The theme of the camp was to teach girls how to use technology to create a safer, more secure world, with a focus on preventing gender-based violence. As a follow up to the camp, there was a grant opportunity available to students who wanted to work on science projects. Maritina worked with Nyaka staff on a proposal and was approved for $500!
The proposal focused on designing, constructing, and implementing an intelligent automatic irrigation system. The plan for the system is to monitor the moisture content levels in soil and then trigger the irrigation water pumps to power on when the moisture level is below the set threshold and power off when the moisture level is at the required level. Thanks to this amazing young lady and her brilliant idea, this project was implemented by a team of students and teachers at Nyaka Vocational Secondary School.
The team began by building a prototype for the automatic irrigation system on a breadboard, which is a solderless device used for making a prototype with electronics and test circuit designs. Then they integrated the prototype with a powered water pump. They did their first testing of the prototype and the system worked well, and the pressure from the water pump was good enough to raise up the pop-up sprinklers. Since the prototype was a success, the next phase is to work on soldering the system on a stripboard, do additional sensor calibration, and add a knob so the user can change the moisture content levels required for all of the varying crops.
Wow, we can’t wait to see what they will think of next! Thank you for giving girls like Maritina amazing opportunities that they never dreamed were possible.
YOUR support changes lives and makes bright futures possible – knowledge is power!
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