'At a festive ceremony in Cape Town (Canal Walk) and Johannesburg (Hyde Park) Woolworths today announced the national winner of the ‘Out of this World’ model-building competition that they have been running through their ‘Making A Difference’ programme. Cape Town based Christian Brother’s College walked away with the main prize of R10 000-00. ‘Their model had all the elements of innovation and design that we were looking for. The standard of all the models was amazing and it was very difficult to choose just one winner”, says Pieter Twine, Head of MySchool at Woolworths. King David Primary School from Johannesburg, the regional runner-up, received R2 500-00. Over the last couple of months Woolworths has successfully implemented the ‘Making A Difference’ pilot programme across 180 schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng. To add another element to the programme learners were invited to participate in the ‘Out of this World’ model-building competition, which culminated in an exhibition at Canal Walk (Cape Town) and Hyde Park (Johannesburg) from Tuesday, 7th September to Sunday, 12th September. The goal of the competition was to combine everything the learners have been taught throughout the various modules of the ‘Making A Difference’ programme. Learners were given the following guidelines from which to generate their individual ideas and apply what they had learned in class: To build a health station, using recycled materials. This health station would need to provide a place where Xena and Torak (the two alien characters featured in the ‘Making A Difference’ teacher’s resource packs) could live on their new planet and house everything that Xena and Torak’s species needs to lead a healthy life, i.e. fresh fruit & vegetables, a restaurant with healthy meals, plus a recreational area where they can do the correct physical exercises to remain healthy and fit. To instill a culture of teamwork among learners, classes were encouraged to divide into groups and asked to collectively design and build a 3D model of a health station, reflecting a healthy lifestyle. Learners were encouraged to think out of the box and in a futuristic and innovative way. Each participating group had to decide on a specific theme for the décor of their station, which needed to include a restaurant and recreational area. Emphasis was placed on the layout of both areas and the content of the menu and Safety & Hygiene chart. By participating in the ‘Out of this World’ competition, schools stood a chance to win R10 000-00. Participating schools each nominated their BEST model. All those models went through to the final round and have been on exhibition at Canal Walk and Hyde Park since earlier this week.

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