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Plaas Media has been the proud sponsor of the South African Society of Animal Science (SASAS) Student Quiz for seven years now. This year not only saw yet another instalment of the very competitive quiz, but also the addition of a student debate. On 1 and 2 September 2022 preliminary- and semi-final rounds were held for both competitions.
Ten teams entered for both the debate and quiz from various universities. These universities are the University of Pretoria (UP), Stellenbosch University (SU), University of the Free State (UFS), University of Zululand (UZ), University of Limpopo (UL), and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
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Student debate
In the preliminary round of the debate, teams were split into five groups and each group had a different topic to debate:
Group 1: UFS 1 (for) vs. Tuks 1 (UP; against). “Will the world ever run out of food for humans?”
Group 2: UKZN 1 (for) vs. The Deliberators (US; against). “Does veganism influence meat production?”
Group 3: UKZN 2 (for) vs. Tuks 2 (UP; against). “Has genetic engineering been of value?”
Group 4: UniZulu-Agric (UZ; for) vs. UL-Luminaries (against). “Rote learning and regurgitation is the best way to learn.”
Group 5: UL-Supremes (for) vs. UFS 2 (against). “Eat less / no meat.”
Judges scored teams on a criterion that considered the speakers’ debating skills (structure of arguments, rebuttal, listening skills etc.), research skills, adherence to the rules and their effectiveness as a group.
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The winners’ scores from each group were compared across the board and the four teams with the highest scores proceeded to the semi-final. The four teams that will battle it out in the semi-final of the debate are Tuks 1 (UP), The Deliberators (SU), UniZulu-Agric (UZ), and UFS 2.
Round one of the semi-finals saw Tuks 1 (against) vs. The Deliberators (for) debate GMO foods vs. non-GMO foods. The winner in this round was The Deliberators, and they proceed to the final which will take place in-person on 26 September at the annual SASAS congress, which will be held in Pietermaritzburg from 26 to 28 September this year.
Round two was UniZulu-Agric (for) vs. UFS 2 (against) debating “Is smart agriculture the future of agriculture?” The winner in this round was UniZulu-Agric and they will also proceed to the final.
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Student quiz
The quiz followed a similar structure as in 2021 where the preliminary round took place on the Kahoot! game application. The ten teams were divided into three groups and the winning team in each group round secured a spot in the final.
Group 1: University of Zululand, University of Limpopo team one, and Stellenbosch University team one. Stellenbosch University team one (“The Plaasbestuurders”) came out on top in the first group round.
Group 2: University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Pretoria team two, Stellenbosch University team two, and University of the Free State team one. The University of Pretoria’s team two (“Tuks 2”) won this round.
Group 3: University of Pretoria team one, University of Limpopo team two, and University of the Free State team two. The University of Pretoria secured themselves another spot in the final, and their team one (“Tuks 1”), will see The Plaasbestuurders and Tuks 2 in the final round at the SASAS Congress on 26 September. This is sure to be an exciting final, so make sure that you follow Plaas Media’s Facebook pages on 26 September 2022 to see who the winning team will be. – Deidré Louw, Plaas Media
