Meet Kayla van der Westhuizen, a grade 7 pupil at Hamilton Preparatory School. She is planning on making a difference in the future. How? you might ask. Well, she won gold at the recent International Eskom Expo for Young Scientists in Boksburg with her project entitled ‘Making a sustainable blanket from potato bags’.
Firstly she had to do market research, finding out whether there would be any interest in such a blanket. After this, she had to complete a series of tests determining whether a potato blanket would actually retain heat the same way as a conventional blanket. These tests being successful, she made 20 blankets from potato bags and gave them to 20 families to use over a period of a few months.
The conclusion was that this blanket works brilliantly and would be a perfect alternative to a conventional blanket. What makes this blanket extra special is that it is environmentally-friendly because it saves on natural resources. Secondly, seeing that it will be very cheap to manufacture, it will serve the less fortunate communities as well.
