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| April 2006 |
Education |
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Festivals make for a good science experiment: add a dash of students, a
sprinkling of teachers, and stir
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Two years ago, both of us attended the Sasol SciFest in Grahamstown, South Africa, for the first time. We weren't on holiday. We worked our way there, helping learners at a series of 'phun physics' workshops organised by Ginny Stone and Ambrose Yaga of the iThemba Laboratories for Accelerator Based Sciences in Faure.
We worked hard, with a maximum of 50 learners in each workshop, and several workshops each day in The Bridge, the hottest part of the huge grey 1820 Settler's Monument building which is the centre of Sasol SciFest.
There are hundreds of workshops at SciFest. The idea is that if the learners do things with their hands, it plants the concept much more firmly in their brains. It's practical. Also, it's more fun than reading about science in an expensive textbook.
What we also discovered is that giving all these different physics performances meant that the same thing happened to us. Each time, learners would ask questions that we'd never considered. Each time, learners would say "what if we do it this way around" and we would discover new things that were never in our teacher training or in our textbooks. It was an eye-opener. We pity those who miss it.
We had breaks to go and see what was happening. We were moving up and down. We did go to the Albany museums, see the people from the space programmes and we met teachers from faraway places such as Namibia.
What we didn't see were very many teachers. We are just ordinary teachers but we think it would be wonderful if the provincial education departments considered busing students and teachers to the Sasol Scifest. Maybe it can used as an incentive scheme to reward students who have to be very dedicated to concentrate on their studies, and to motivate science teachers who can sometimes feel very isolated.
The word 'ithemba' means hope in both isiZulu and isiXhosa, and this is what the
combination of iThemba LABS and Sasol SciFest has given us.
We returned home rejuvenated, not exhausted. And the impact of SciFest did not
end when we unpacked our suitcases. We can prove it. Even though our students
unfortunately were not able to accompany us, they benefited anyhow because being
invited to SciFest gives you that confidence.
At Manzomthombo High School in the poverty-stricken Mfuleni district of Cape Town, where one of us teaches physical science and mathematics, 2004 was a particularly difficult year because of protests over the platoon system and other problems, and so the higher grade matric pass rate for physical science was at an alltime low of 30%. (Normally it hovers at about 50% pass rate for both higher and standard grades). In 2005, after we returned from SciFest, the matric physical science pass rate was 100% in higher grade and 75% in standard grade! The community was in tears of happiness and joy.
Manzamthombo means "the freshwater spring" or "the oasis" in isiXhosa and it has come true for this school with the same name: now we have a matric class of 200 students and two full matric classes taking physical science, because they have seen that it can be done.
At Zisukhanyo Senior Secondary, where one of us teaches physical science and biology to grades ten to twelve, many from the very poor Samora Machel informal settlement in Philippi, physical science is only taught at standard grade. Before, the pass rate was in the 60% range.
In 2005, it was a 78% pass. We are happy with the improvement. And we have matric graduates who are now studying engineering at Pentech and doing bridging courses with the University of Cape Town so they can achieve higher grade results.
We tell the learners "it's not about where you are, it's about what you
want." But the truth is, science learning can happen wherever you are. But
it happens best at science festivals such as SciFest. Africa needs a chain of
such festivals.
More information:
Philda Mtwana will return to teaching physical science and mathematics at
Manzomthombo High School in Cape Town, South Africa, at the end of her maternity
leave. Buyelewa Mbopa teaches Grades 10, 11 and 12 in biology and physical
science at Zisukhanyo Senior Secondary on the Cape Flats.
They attended Sasol SciFest as part of the Cape Town-based iThemba Laboratories for Accelerator Based Sciences - www.tlabs.co.za - "Phat Physics" daily workshops. Sasol SciFest has announced its 2007 season already, which will open on March 21 and run every day for a week. For more information, phone 27 (0)46 603 1106 or email info@scifest.org.za. Or on the internet, go to www.scifest.org.za
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