Made of Tupperware, chopsticks and foam paper, eight-year-old Lai Shi Jie's homemade toy pirate ship is unlikely to last long on the high seas.

But yesterday it won him first prize in an annual toy-making contest which encourages kids to test their skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Shi Jie took the top prize in the Scizkid (Primary 3-6) category at the Sony Creative Science Awards, after using the concept of friction to manually turn the ship using a rubber wheel.

"Science is my favourite subject, we need it every day," he said. Dr Janil Puthucheary, the Minister of State for Education, and Communications and Information, gave out the awards at the Science Centre.