Quetta: A 7th and a 9th grader create chip boards out of pine needles and mosquito repellents out of orange peels.

Mukarram Fatah was curious as to why orange peels are used to repel off mosquitoes when he took his scientific curiosity into the science lab finding out that orange peels repel mosquitoes with no harmful effects of it on the human body.

Speaking to ARY News, Mukarram said, “I found out that 40% methanol is naturally present in orange peels which doesn’t let it spoil. Second there is citric acid in it which the mosquitoes detest seeing which I made these repellents.”

Similarly, when Yasir Jaan Notezai found out that pine needles are a very big reason for forest fires he decided to use them for something better. According to Yasir, pine needles have properties of wood which lead to successful making of chip board, “Pine needles have a lot of lignin for example 50-60%. Pine needles make chip boards very strong, if we try we won’t be able to break it. The advantage is that when you do deforestation and cut down the trees, it directly affects our environment. This why we have come up with this alternative of not making chip board with wood but with pine needles. One day when I was going to my village for a picnic to a forest. We picked up pine needles from the forest checked its chemical composition and realized it could be used for so much better. I want to better the environment and utilize useless materials for the betterment of the society”

Out of students from 21 countries Mukarram Fatah came 1st and Yasir 2nd in the Golden Climate Project Olympiad, Kenya owing to their critical inventions for the prevention of dengue and the protection of our forests.