Merit Prize in the Hong Kong Science Fair

Four of our Form 5 Biology students, Cai Wang Yu, Poon Chun Yau Eric, Wong Kwai Ying from 5A and Chan Yik Kwan from 5B, participated in the Hong Kong Science Fair organized by the Hong Kong Innovation Foundation this year. During the process, they were trained in two workshops by experts at the MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node Centre, receiving valuable comments on their programming and presentation skills. Their dedication earned them a Merit Prize in the Senior Form category.

Their project, “Savior”, aims to boost the population of native insects and plants having declined due to urban development and climate change. “Savior” is a self-operated insect hotel using the Arduino program. The Arduino board processes data collected by 6 light sensors, 2 water sensors and a solar panel installed on the roof top to initiate responses correspondingly, such as revolving the device to avoid sunlight and lowering the curtain to avoid raindrops, in order to provide the best living condition for the insects and thus help the pollination of native plants. If cameras are installed, photos of different insects and plants around can be captured and shared on online platforms such as iNaturalist while the collected data can be processed to achieve different investigation and analysis purposes by universities, institutions and environmental organisations. Their product can accomplish multiple objectives. Besides increasing the general public’s awareness, the mechanism saves a lot of manpower in terms of data collection and monitoring. It is hoped that “Savior” can contribute to saving and protecting the life of both pollinators and native plants.