From a desire to improve the environment to a scientific idea

At the 13th World Invention Olympiad (WICO) 2024 recently held in Korea, a group of Vietnamese high school students won three top prizes at the same time: Gold, Special Grand and Grand Prize. The group also made a strong impression on the judges and international friends with their mature, confident, friendly demeanor and fluent English speaking ability.

The group topic in the field of environmental science is considered to be new, creative, meaningful and closely related to life. The authors of the topic are: Nguyen Tran Nam Khanh (12D3), Do Phuong Linh (12D1), Nguyen Tuan Khoi (12D1) and Tan Thien Kim (11A4) - Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School (Hanoi National University of Education) and Nguyen Cao Duc Minh, class 12A6 - Foreign Language Specialized High School (University of Languages ​​and International Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi).

Sharing about the research idea, the group of students said that they have the same interest in scientific research. During a few times of studying abroad under the school's educational cooperation program, they compared the environment in other countries with the environment in Vietnam and had many concerns about how to make the environment in Vietnam better and cleaner and how to improve this problem. Sharing their thoughts with teacher Tran Duc Minh - the teacher in charge of the scientific research club of Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School, they were encouraged and motivated by him. Happily, the school's Board of Directors and parents also supported and created the best conditions for them to pursue their passion for research.

Mr. Tran Minh Duc said: “The students’ research on environmental treatment is very good, but they need to determine which direction to follow and the group decided to research on environmental technology. The next step is for me to guide them to learn about materials that help in treating polluted environments.”

Following the guidance of Mr. Minh Duc, the group of 5 students actively read documents, researched, and applied; from there, they agreed to choose one of the environmentally friendly materials, avoiding secondary pollution; common agricultural by-products in Vietnam such as: coffee husks, coffee grounds, banana peels, rice husks, coconut fiber, peanut shells, sugarcane bagasse, etc. The group focused on peanut shells because of their popularity; moreover, research can be carried out in many directions from peanut shells (fermentation, burning to create activated carbon; changing the structure to increase the ability to absorb metals, etc.). From here, the topic " Research on modifying peanut shells as materials to treat heavy metals causing pollution" was started.

Many great values ​​after the prize

According to the group of 5 students from Hanoi, from the time the group was established, from the idea to the competition, it took only 3 months, but the advantage was that the research process took place during the summer vacation, so the students could devote all their time to their scientific work.

Every day, the group members go to the lab, send the results for analysis; meet with experts and teachers twice a week; in the evening, they work online in groups and read documents. Because of the group work, each individual is assigned specific tasks, so 100% of the members are active and strive to complete the assigned tasks well.

Mr. Minh Duc shared: 2 days before departure, the students were very nervous and spent a lot of time practicing the presentation and reporting. Although they all had an IELTS level of 7.0 or higher, the group was not really fluent and did not have good English reflexes. When they went to compete in Korea, seeing that the other team had a scientific product to bring, while their group only had a poster, the members were even more worried but also reminded each other to be determined and try their best.

“After completing the reports, the whole group was extremely satisfied because all the members answered well and were praised by the judges. When their names were called for the Gold award, everyone was very happy and even happier when they won two more top prizes in a row,” Do Phuong Linh shared.

According to Team Leader Nguyen Tran Nam Khanh, what the students received after the competition was not only the noble awards but also the experience. Participating in the competition in Korea this year were about 2,000 students from 140 competing teams from 25 countries with the most developed education systems in the world (Australia, USA, Canada, Korea, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia...). Therefore, the team brought many typical souvenirs of Vietnam as gifts and actively interacted with the members of the other teams.

Directly guiding and taking students to the competition, teacher Tran Minh Duc said that the students have matured a lot after the competition. They know how to work in groups, have better English reflexes; know how to do scientific research, and know how to accept failure in science to achieve success. During the experiment, the students had to directly measure, research and fail many times; some experiments failed 4-5 times but after that, they had to persevere, adjust the formula and method to get results.

Sharing about how this scientific research will be applied in life, Mr. Tran Minh Duc said that it is a very long and far process. However, this is a very good research, meaningful and of scientific value. In the future, if you continue your passion, you can develop your research to create materials and products that are useful to society in environmental treatment and protection.