UKZN Academic Assists Youngsters in School Project

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Two Grade nine pupils at St Mary’s DSG in Kloof were fortunate to get support from UKZN Academic, Dr Nicky Tyler in a project for their school’s science expo.  

The pupils, Ms Sarah Cameron and Ms Katya Williams, are both very passionate about animals and Cameron has previously enjoyed guidance from Tyler who is keen to foster enthusiasm from youngsters. 

Tyler of the Discipline of Animal and Poultry Science showed Cameron around the poultry facilities at UKZN’s Ukulinga Farm in Pietermaritzburg which is the home of a diverse range of research projects in the areas of food, water, energy, and biofuels development. 

Recently, when Cameron and Williams decided to do a project on poultry for their school science expo, Tyler helped to organise them chicks, food and a brooder lamp and the girls built a brooder in which to rear the chicks.

‘Dr Tyler showed me the conditions for chickens raised commercially to give me an idea of how to reproduce a similar environment for this experiment to ensure the most accurate results,’ said Cameron. 

The students’ project examined the difference in growth rates of chicks being looked after by a broody hen versus those in an artificial brooder. Those in the brooder were found to be 27 percent bigger at the end of the experiment, although they were not as explorative as those reared with a hen. 

Cameron and Williams’s poster won first prize at their School science expo and also a gold medal at the Eskom Expo in Ladysmith. ‘The project involved lots of hard work but nothing is more satisfying than seeing a little chick you have raised since he/she was a day old become a handsome rooster or beautiful hen,’ said Williams. 

Tyler hopes that this sort of engagement with high school students will expose them to the variety of career possibilities at UKZN, and more specifically that it encourages Cameron and Williams to one day study in the Discipline of Animal and Poultry Science at the University. 

- Nicky Tyler