De Beers Impact Report - December 2020

SEPANYA PRIMARY SCHOOL

ECO- 2016 CODE 1. Repair, recycle, reuse and reduce because every drop of water counts! 2. We grow veggies to alleviate malnutrition of learners & the community.

Hello! Our school is situated in the remote Setloking Village, at the foot of the Blouberg Mountain, Limpopo. The socio-economic challenges faced by families of the learners are lack of transport, illiteracy, high rate of orphans and vulnerable children, unemployment and alcoholism. The area suffers from scarcity of water and the school's borehole is drying up. Soil is eroded due to the mountainous terrain and overgrazing.

THEME: RESOURCE USE

THEME: HEALTHY LIVING

ACTION We decided to use the Scientific Method to investigate if the tippy tap saves water compared to using a tap for washing Ask a question: Will the tippy tap save water? Observe: We looked at where we were wasting water & drew a map of the school grounds & taps. Make a hypothesis: Then we made a prediction of what will happen – We think the tippy tap will save water. Plan your experiment: We chose 3 learners to wash their hands under a tap and 3 learners to wash their hands under a tippy tap and comparing the measurements. Step 5: Conduct your experiment: We measured the amounts of water used, obtained the average and recorded our findings on a table. Step 3: Step 4: hands. Step 1: Step 2:

ACTION: We are preparing to plant our vegetable garden and have to find out how fertile our soil is. Step 1: Ask a question: Which soil is best for plants? Step 2: Research: We learned that soil comes from rocks and consists of tiny stones and living things. Step 3: Make a hypothesis: We predicted that soil with lots of organic matter will be the best for plants. Step 4: Plan your experiment: We will test the qualities of 3 types of soil – sand, clay & loam. Step 5: Do your experiments: We examined the colour, texture, smell and size of each soil. We also tested how much water drains through each soil. Then we tested the amount of organic matter in the soil.

RESULTS Step 6:

Draw your conclusions and share: We calculated that we save 450 litres per day if the whole school washed their hands on average 3 times a day using tippy taps! We drew a graph to show our results.

RESULTS Step 6: Draw your conclusions

and share: We realised that loam soil has the most organic matter. It is the best soil to let water pass through it for the roots of plants. We learned that to make soil more fertile, we have to add compost to the soil.