Science centres have their lists ready for Christmas
Christina Scott
The recession has hit local science centres, which met this month to chart a
survival strategy.
The MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town is in negotiations with its anchor sponsor
and its landlord.
Scifest Africa, the science festival in Grahamstown, has to ask for money
from the state every year and negotiates new contracts every three years with
corporate donors such as Sasol and Old Mutual.
Still, a visitor's centre is being built near the Pelindaba nuclear reactor
and South Africa hosts the world congress of science centres in 2011.
Abroad, the Gerontological Society of America argues that science centres
help ward off Alzheimer's disease in seniors while global research by Ilze
Groves in Australia indicates that centres offer significant economic benefits.
''Do people learn science in nonschool settings? This is a critical question
for policy makers, practitioners and researchers alike—and the answer is yes,''
says a 2009 report requested by the American science academies.
However, the discovery centre at the Botswana Technology Centre is apparently
inoperative after their expensive imported exhibits required repairs. The
science centre in Durban's Gateway mall reopened last month minus a considerable
chunk of floor space, hived off for a restaurant.
Part of the problem is that visiting a science centre is like falling in
love: it's darn near impossible to supply proof. ''Learning does occur at
science centres,'' says Anthony Lelliott of Wits University’s Marang Centre for
Maths & Science Education. ''But it's difficult to identify.''
Do we need more evidence, after three science centre surveys in
post-apartheid South Africa?
No, says Derek Fish, founder of the 23-year-old University of Zululand
science centre in Richard's Bay. ''Nobody asks a kid watching rugby on the
television if they're going to grow up to be rugby player. Nobody buttonholes
the audience leaving a music concert and asks if they're motivated to take up
the cello or drums,'' he pointed out. ''Science is just as much a part of South
African culture as sport and music.''
Yet earlier this year the British government published an impact report on
science centres.
The study, by Frontier Economics, concluded disapprovingly that ''there is
insufficient evidence to explain in a robust and quantified way the impact of
science centre activities on the uptake by young people of science at school.''
Ditto for adults.
Fish, who is doing a masters degree analysing South African science centres,
says the British report is deeply flawed. ''They'd have trouble finding
'sufficient evidence' that teachers increase the number of young people
interested in science - it's more likely to be the other way around!''
South Africa's context is different as well, Fish says. ''In Britain, science
centres support functioning education systems and offer edutainment to the
family market. The kids who come to my science centre in KwaZulu-Natal don't
even have families, they've been ravaged by HIV. When I do matric workshops for
12,000 students, they're desperate. So are the teachers, who say they use the
lessons from one day's visit for the rest of the year.''
''It's premature to demand proof that science centres work. In comparison to
what?'' asks Fish. ''My view is that science education has worsened - but it
would have been worse still without science centres.''
Fish's final say: ''In Britain, you have to work really hard to make a
science centre not work. Here, we've got a handful of demented, passionate
people who do it for love, with meagre resources and against all odds.''
Although the UK report did say that science centres are cost effective and
perform ''reasonably well,'' the British government has decided not to expand
its science centre network.
At least one Brit disagrees with this decision. ''Science is one of
humanity's greatest adventures,'' says Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the
royal observatory in Greenwich.
Kukula, making his first visit here this month to speak at the Southern
African Association of Science and Technology Centres (SAASTEC) annual meeting,
says ''evolution and the Big Bang tell an amazing and beautiful story. Science
centres have an extremely important role to play in making sure that these ideas
belong to everyone.''
Closer to home, one of the main government funding channels, the South
African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA), has been asking
science centres to provide detailed accounts of who benefits from their
activities. However, many staff said that repeatedly filling in mountains of
paperwork detracts from the quantity and quality of their priority work.
It's a far cry from the grandiose announcement made by Lebs Mphahlele, then
based with the department of science and technology, at the 2006 SAASTEC indaba.
Mphahlele claimed there would be a science centre in every magisterial district
in South Africa.
Maybe it's 'damned if you do, damned if you don't': the renowned Singapore
science centre is at risk because the Asian country consistently has the best
school science results in the world, leading politicians to argue now that
there's no need for extra input!
More information:
 * Close to 100
delegates, including Britain, Nigeria and Namibia, joined the 12th SAASTEC
meeting in Sutherland from November 23 to the 26. More at
www.saastec.co.za.
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