For the third time Garvin Tynes Primary School has won the annual Science Talk Competition, "Science Matters".

The team of Hudson Murphy, Breyanna Braynen, Tyra Munroe, Alisha Saunders was coached by Ronique Curry, science coordinator at Garvin Tynes Primary School, captured the 4th Annual Science Talk Competition held at Uriah McPhee Primary School.

After the completion of one individual and three group rounds, Garvin Tynes emerged the winners with 100 points. T.G. Glover Primary School finished second with 66 points, Lower Deadman's Cay Primary School was a close third with 65 points. Sadie Curtis Primary School placed fourth, with Thelma Gibson Primary fifth.

Ronique Curry, science coordinator at Garvin Tynes Primary was pleased her student won the competition for the third time in its four-year existence. She attributed the students' success to teamwork between the fourth grade teachers, the parents and administration. She also alluded to using a particular strategy to prepare her students for the competition, but would not reveal the strategy that has led to the school's success.

The competition is an initiative introduced by the Primary Science Unit of the Department of Education for fourth grade students at the primary and all-age schools throughout the islands. The content is based on the primary school science curriculum and topic questions focus on life, earth, space and physical science. The goal of the competition is to promote and increase interest in science among students, and the objective is to provide a forum for interaction and friendly competition among primary school students while strengthening oral communication.

Each district in New Providence participated in this year's competition, along with representatives from the Long Island district. Garvin Tynes Primary School represented the Southwestern District; T.G. Glover Primary School the Northwestern District; Sadie Curtis Primary School the Southeastern District; Thelma Gibson Primary School the Northeastern District and Lower Deadman's Cay Primary School, the Long Island District.

Seventeen schools participated in the overall competition.

Barbara Dorsett, senior education officer for Primary Science disclosed that 17 schools participated in the overall competition. She noted that the overall performance of the students was better than last year, and she was satisfied that the competition was developing and coming into its own.

"What we are trying to achieve is to make sure that our children can speak on the topic of science and articulate the information in a confident, competent and effective manner and at the same time, have fun," said Dorsett. She encouraged all teachers to use the science talk strategy in the classroom so that the manner of the competition is not foreign to students.

She said one of the goals for next year is to get more of the Family Islands to participate, and to introduce the private schools to the competition. She said private schools had intentionally been left out by the competition to date to allow public school students to experience some success first. Dorsett further implored teachers to use a variety of teaching strategies in the science classroom so that more young men would become excited about science and be encouraged to participate in the competition. An all-male team of students won in 2013, but Dorsett said she would like to see more than a sprinkling of young men in the competition.

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