Learner Research projects 2024
Title of the project: Rubber Collision
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Asithandile Majola
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Elisabeth Meusert, Stuart Camp & Siphamandla Khoza
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
The aim of this project was to build a car that is made of rubber body by reducing the impact of car collisions on the roads & eliminating the increase car accidents. To achieve this goal, a car without rubber was used and it moved down the ramp using different angles (, furthermore acceleration was calculated to see whether an angles size influenced the rate of acceleration of a car or not. The velocity of the car was also calculated using varying rubber weights attached to the car, to see the effect of weight on the velocity of the car. A force senser was used to measure the force exerted on the barrier during the time of contact.
Title of the project: Deaf Guide System
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Anele Gumede
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Siphamandla Khoza, Masibulele Gobo & Kosmas Dandl
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
The dead guide system (DGS) is a project that assists in helping the deaf people. It detects an upcoming obstacle e.g car, senses the distance of the obstacle, then alerts the person by vibrating the person’s hand if in danger. To achieve this goal, ultrasonic sensors was connected, one to veraboard, the other to Arduino with jumper wires. Red, green and amber LED with a C++ code. I was able to display the outputs, I declared each pin in the code and the code was completed. This project was a success.
Title of the project: Principles of Lift & Drag
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Nonhle Danisa
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Elisabeth Meusert
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
The principles of lift and drag on a kite was investigated by making a kite to understand the fundamentals and laws of physics that govern on how airplanes achieve and maintain flights. Four main forces of flight were discovered, a relationship on how kites airplane wings are similar; they generate lift by deflecting air. To make this project a success different air fans were used to make the kite fly in a certain direction which was laminar flow, also different kites were made, and area was calculated
Title of the project: Photon Entanglement
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Nondumiso Dlamini
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Felicia Vilakazi, Masibulele Gobo, Elisabeth Meusert & Kosmas Dandl
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
After finding out that quantum physics poses a serious challenge to our knowledge of the universe as it is known. I wanted to dig deeper in the concept to fully grasp and understand all the fundamental concepts of Quantum optics. I started by doing an experiment for the law of reflection, plane mirrors to create entangled photons, secondly, I did the double slit experiment, where I looked at concepts like wave interference and the behaviour of a wave function. Lastly, I looked at the diffraction patterns, after beam splitting and intensity visuals using python programming language. Laser & optics materials were provided and used to find entangled photons.
Title of the project: Water Storage System
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Zekhethelo Mbatha & Anele Biyela
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Robin & Felicia Vilakazi
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
The Pump-back hydroelectric dams system involves the use of underground dams to store water while simultaneously generating electricity. Dams were placed in a descending order, connected by pipes. Turbines were inserted between the pipes and were connected to electric generators. The aim was to make turbines spin due to the pressure of the movement of water between the pipes. Voltage generated by turbines was measured using a multi-meter. The lowest dam was connected to a pump which used batteries to pump the water back to the surface through a rubber flexible pipe
Title of the project: Smart Wheelchair
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Nokukhanya Nene
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Siphamandla Khoza, Kosmas Dandl
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
I wanted to build a smart wheelchair that will detect obstacles and be voice controlled. To achieve this goal, Lego Mindstorms were used to make a wheelchair, two motors were used for movement purposes. Two sensors were also used; sound and ultrasonic sensors to assist wheelchair users in case of danger and to detect obstacles. This project used NXT programming language.
Title of the project: Wind Power
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Siyethaba Shozi
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Elisabeth Meusert & Kosmas Dandl
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
Wind energy as a source for electric vehicles, the project promotes the use of renewable energy. In this way we promote a much more friendly resource to the environment. The prototype includes the use of Pasco cars, and a Pasco ramp. The ramp of 47cm as the course of motion. The car was attached with a crafted turbine, electric generator and a capacitor. Through these components and the use of a voltmeter to get the readings of the amount of voltage produced by spinning the fan. The electric generator will convert the kinetic energy of the fan to electric energy.
Title of the project: Thermoelectric Generator
Name(s) of students involved in the project: Asifunde Madiya
Name(s) of tutors involved in the project: Siphamandla Khoza
Name of the school: Anton Lembede MST Academy
In this project I aimed to produce electrical energy by using heat energy. This was done using a thermoelectric generator which uses temperature difference to directly convert the heat energy into electricity. Temperature difference was obtained by placing high temperatures on the one side and low temperatures on the other side of the thermoelectric generator. The electric power produced was tested using a light bulb and a voltmeter.