A NOVEL idea to use Singapore's hot roads to heat water systems has bagged a team of students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) a top prize at the biennial National Weather Study Project awards.

For their project, which involves installing water pipes under roads, the team of four JC2 students won $10,000 in cash, plus a trip to Germany to showcase their eco-friendly project to schools there.

They were one of three top winners who received their awards from Law Minister K. Shanmugam at the Science Centre Singapore yesterday.

A total of 235 projects were submitted by 152 primary and secondary schools and junior colleges for the event organised by local electricity generator Senoko Power.

The competition, launched in 2005, honours ideas about going green, using information from mini-weather stations installed in participating schools.

At yesterday's event, Mr Shanmugam, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, had a change of heart in an effort to go green.

He told an audience of about 600 students, teachers and guests an anecdote about how his environmentally conscious wife had replaced his usual shaving foam with one that was environmentally friendly. But he did not like the new product.

'So this morning, I decided I will put my foot down and say, no I'm not going to use this, I'm going to go back to my shaving foam. But after coming here, maybe I will stop my act of rebellion,' he quipped.

Principal chairman of the project's advisory committee, Professor Leo Tan, said the winners were chosen based on how well thought through their ideas were. He said: 'We were not looking at the end results, whether the projects could be commercialised, whether there were any direct applications, but whether they were logical, based on sound evidence, building on information available.

'They don't need to solve the problem of climate change or come up with a solution.

'But we hope we set them thinking about it, and if more of us do it conscientiously, then we might be able to make a greater impact to reduce the effects of climate change.'

Nanyang Girls' High School won the top prize in the secondary school division for showing that students were best at recalling shapes and words when the room temperature was between 25.9 deg C and 27.3 deg C.

The team suggested that air-conditioning was generally not needed in schools, and not necessary in companies before 10am.

In the primary school division, Unity Primary School won the top prize for finding what material was best at absorbing perspiration and could be used in T-shirts in physical education classes. It is Dri-Fit.

LIAW WY-CIN

This article was first published in The Straits Times.