Crawford College Pretoria’s senior debating team, who were crowned National Champions at South Africa’s Science Agency Debating Competition 2018, won a trip to New York where they were hosted by members of the American Museum of Natural History.
In August last year, Crawford College Pretoria debaters participated in an intense debate on the topic of the Square Kilometre Array.
The five debaters, Yasmeen Geldenhuys, Fatima Mahamoud Adam Bechir, Nkomati Mashaole Mashabane, Yastiel Pillay and Muzzammil Tayob, came up trumps in the province beating 11 other high schools and earning the honour of being Gauteng champs. This victory in verbal jousting led to the debaters representing Gauteng at the National Conference.
At the National Conference, the participants were expected to debate whether investing in mega-science projects such as the SKA is viable for a developing nation such as South Africa. The team engaged debaters from the eight winning provincial teams in what was described as one of the highly competitive national debates. These very confident speakers emerged unscathed, placing first and crowned as the National Champions.
The prize for being the national winners was an exciting trip to New York. The group were guests of the American Museum of Natural History, and were warmly welcomed by Dr Maritza Macdonald. They were introduced to phenomenal researchers such as Dr Carter Emmart (Director of Astrovisualisation), Dr Jay Holmes (Senior co-ordinator of Urban Advantage Professional Learning), Dr Ro Kinzler (Head of the Climate Change department) and Dr Adriana Acquino (Expert on vertebrates). The students were able to meet other researchers and inspiring individuals, who work for the museum, as a result of an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the museum.
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