Crawford Times 61

COLLEGE
ACADEMICS
Crawford College La Lucia
Crawford College La Lucia
Exceptional
Maths student,
Kayrav Naidoo,
Grade 12.
Crawford College La Lucia has often encountered
students with exceptional talents. However, some
students go beyond meeting the criteria for exceptional
performance. One such student is Kayrav Naidoo, who
is nothing short of phenomenal. Since his entry to the
school in Grade 8 five years ago, he has pushed the
boundaries in all subjects, Mathematics in particular. He
has consistently topped the grade every year attaining
nothing less than 99 to 100%. Not only has he achieved
this outstanding feat, but he has also been the top
student in the South African Mathematics Olympiad,
both at school and nationally. He achieved the following
accolades over the years:
2015 – Grade 8: Top 100 in the final round
2016 – Grade 9: Top 100 in the final round
2017 – Grade 10: Placed 19th nationally out of a possible 96 000 students
2018 – Grade 11: Top 100 in the final round
We await his final results for 2019. The Mathematics Department anticipates
that he’ll be placed in the Top 100 students category again.
Crawford College Lonehill
From L-R: Jayden Kambule, Shreya
Maharaj, Boitu Dibete and Tarique
MacKay.
At Crawford College Lonehill,
Robotics students from Grade
8-12 are tasked with designing,
building and programming
their own robot. The fully
programmed robot must finish
a challenge set by the World
Robotics Olympiad (WRO)
governing body in less than 2
minutes and 30 seconds.
Currently, each team is working
towards the provincial round
which takes place in August.
There are five provincial
competitions, one in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Northern Cape,
and two in Gauteng. All competing teams are ranked nationally, from this
ranking list the top 10 to 15 teams are invited to attend and compete in the
national event in Gauteng. Teams winning their category might be invited
to represent South Africa at the WRO international event. Our club aims to
beat last year’s achievement of one nationally competing team by securing
two places in the national competition.
Designing any piece of machinery with a specific purpose in mind requires
members to develop their creative thinking skills, problem-solving skills
as well as their concepts spatial awareness and relative mechanics.
Additionally, members build their sequential thinking skills as well as learn
how to deconstruct large challenges into smaller, more manageable tasks.
The skills taught and developed at Robotics extend far beyond the scope of
the sessions and can be applied to everyday challenges in the classroom or
beyond. – Gilles Teuwen, Grade 11, Robotics Captain
From L-R: Arya Ramsudh, Rachelle
de Villiers and Joseph Lavoipierre.
Crawford College La Lucia was
thrilled that their talented and
hard-working Junior Debaters were
selected to represent the Durban
and Coastal Debating League at
the provincial tournament held in
Verulam in June. Rachelle de Villiers
was selected as a reserve while Arya
Ramsudh and Joseph Lavoipierre
were selected to the team. This is
a fantastic achievement for these
Grade 9 students!
Crawford College Lonehill
Azhiel Naidoo and Satya Bandaru,
Grade 8.
Students from the Tournament of
Minds extra-mural school club for
Grade 8-10s designing and building
their very own Rube Goldberg
machines! A Rube Goldberg
machine is used to perform a simple
task in a very overcomplicated
way. It’s more challenging than
it looks, and creativity must meet
engineering to build a successful
contraption.
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