5th Science Centre World Congress

Registration is now open for the 5th Science Centre World Congress, taking place June 15-20, 2008 in Canada - and the MTN Sciencentre intends to be there, in both Toronto and further north in Sudbury, in the province of Ontario.

Speakers include Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit leader, a Canadian climate change activist and a nominee for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Another speaker is Dr. Mohamed Hassan, former dean of the school of mathematical sciences at the University of Khartoum in the Sudan. Dr. Hassan is president of the African Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Kenya, and executive director of the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World, based in Italy.

Both Sheila Watt-Cloutier and Mohamed Hassan will adress the Congress on the topic of Mother Earth - Living on it, Changing it, Sustaining it. Visit the website www.5scwc.org for details.

MTE studio's water exhibit

Kids are splashing about with the water exhibit newly designed by the smart people at MTE Studio. Expect a story about it in the Escape section of the Cape Times any day now.

Super Silly Science Sleepover

Yes indeed, it's time for the Silly Science Sleepover at the MTN Sciencentre. For ages 8 to 12. Who could resist ... and it's just before it's time to go back to school! Tel 021 5298100 to book. A maximum of 120 kids can participate. Dress up like a mad scientist, explode the myths about popcorn, paint up a storm on a t-shirt, go star-gazing on the rooftop or just sit back, relax, and enjoy the super silly science show. Overnight Friday January 11.

Tik Tok, Time Runs Out

Our new exhibition is called Tik, Tok, Time is Running Out.

It's an interactive awareness exhibition on tik, the highly addictive drug (seen above at molecular level) that ruins so many young South African lives. Kindly sponsored by the Western Cape Education Department.

ikapa elihlumayo!

Schools are already lining up for 2008 and visits to the MTN Sciencentre.

So we say goodbye to 2007 with a brief mention of some of the last of our formal visitors to the MTN Sciencentre, including the El-Shadai Christian School in Durbanville and Excelsior Secondary School in Belhar. Good luck to the matrics, who get their results on Friday.

In addition, some of the teachers taking advantage of the last few days of the school calendar included the bilingual Gordon’s Bay Primary / Primêre Skool Gordonsbaai further east along our coast in some spectacularly pretty landscape, as seen above.

And one of our last but not least: students from Strandfontien Primary in Mitchell's Plain

Keeping an eye on Mother Earth

Students from Fairmont high school in Durbanville, which is on a former farm with roots traceable back to the days of the Dutch East India Company, dropped in on the MTN Sciencentre in the not too distant past.

They were joined by students from Lotus River on the Cape Flats, St George's Grammar in Mowbray, a school which is about to celebrate its 160th birthday in 2008, and Klein Nederburg High (where rugby player and coach Chester Williams studied) dropped in to the MTN Sciencentre to brush up on their science skills in late November.

Why? They were going to join some very high-powered people at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, which was hosting the Ministerial Summit on Earth Observations.

Ministers and officials from over 100 governments and international organizations assembled in Cape Town, South Africa from 28 to 30 November 2007 to agree on a plan for building a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS, to monitor the health of our one and only planet.

Who knows - with the help of the MTN Sciencentre, maybe some of the students who came to us before heading off to the Ministerial Summit will one day be the science equivalent of Chester Williams!

Homestead Projects for Street Children

Street children for The Homestead Project (above) in Strand Street were among our last official visitors, with Gerald Jacobs. 1982 - The Homestead was the first shelter for street children in Cape Town and indeed in South Africa. It opened in 1982.

At the same time - this was back in November, on the 26th - Eloise Nefdt and Detlef Basel took the mobile sciencentre to the Western Cape Education Department.

The next day, it was a visit from the students from the Al Azhar Institute, a madressa in Lappert Street in Paarl, 60 kilometres away, and the kids from the Nural Huda Nursery School, one of the Montessori schools, with teacher Fatima Rahbeeni.

The kids from Nural Huda didn't have to travel so far, coming from 62 Ernest Road in Rylands Estate in Athlone on the Cape Flats.

Now, of course, it's holiday-mode, with kids coming in from the beach ready to have fun.

Donating blood

The Western Cape is experiencing its worst blood shortage in 10 years.

So the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk is doing its part. You could call it practical science.

As reported in the Tygerburger newspaper, blood donations can be made on Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th of December from 10:00 to 15:45.

There have been inadequate blood stocks since September, due to the public service strike, the school holidays and the Muslim fasting period of Ramadaan, according to Western Province Blood Transfusion Service spokesperson Lynn Erasmus.

The pressure grows worse by two long weekends over Christmas and New Year and the increase in the number of road accidents over the holiday season."It's undeniable that what goes on on the roads creates an even bigger pinch."

And there's been a 30 percent increase in demand from the trauma units at Red Cross, Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals. So go on - be a vampire in reverse!

Explosive stuff

Detlef Basel, our resident science show maestro, has been fondly mentioned by a former high school student from his time as a Pretoria teacher at St Albans. You know a person is impressive when they linger in a student's memory for 37 years. And it seems some things don't change...

This is what Pete ''George'' Bower (Class of 70) writes: ''I remember sitting next to Rob van der Merwe in Science. Detlef Basel was the teacher. One experiment involved putting sugar together with an acid. The sugar had been "diluted" with an inordinate amount of sand so the experiment didn't work as planned.

"Add heat," said Basel, reaching for a Bunsen burner.

The upshot of the thing was it exploded, covering the front of his safari suit in a corrosive mixture. Detlef still makes things explode, generally on purpose. But the safari suits don't seem to be much in evidence these days, thank goodness.

http://www.stalbanscollege.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=303&Itemid=33

YouTube

MTN Sciencentre is now on YouTube!

A dad was so taken with our optical illusion that he filmed his daughter, her head apparently severed from her body, with her face on a platter with a few garnishes. (Hint: it's all done with mirrors.)

You'll find it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aZ-st2WCsRU

Flickr

MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town, South Africa is showing up in Flickr, the world's largest online photo-sharing outlet. Danie van der Merwe, who took the photo, called it ''Kaylyn at MTN Science Centre'' and told Flickr ''This is apparently the world's biggest working cellphone with fully working software ...

More photos online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dvdmerwe/archives/date-posted/2007/12/11/

Amy Biehl Foundation

Merry Christmas to Ilchen Retief of the Amy Biehl Foundation, set up by the parents of the 26-year-old Stanford University student and Fulbright Scholar, who was murdered in Cape Town the dying days of apartheid.

In their last newsletter of the year, Ilchen mentioned the MTN Sciencentre as one of the places that waived entrance fees so that children from the townships were treated to the following outings.

The foundation, like the MTN Sciencentre, is heavily involved in educating our youth. For more on the Amy Biehl Foundation, they're online at http://www.amybiehl.co.za/

School's almost out

School visits are tapering off, as teachers cope with exams and marking and the upcoming holidays.

But that's not to say we've been left completely on our own. For one thing, as school visits decrease, individual visits shoot up.

And we have been visited this month by 69 grade one students at Mountain Road primary school in Woodstock, under the guidance of educator Leré Zeeman. A few days later, their older classmates from grade six joined us after this was organised by teacher Fatiema Stolk.

It was Leré Zeeman's first trip to the science centre, and she was worried about the lack of parental oversight and the size of the science centre - but that was before she attended her pre-meeting, where she oriented herself.

After the actual school trip, she was relieved, commenting on the efficiency and organisation with which staff sorted out places to drop school bags, divided the three classes into groups and rotated the kids to a new exhibit or experiment every half an hour. The lack of parents was no longer a worry, because the staff made sure that no small budding scientists managed to get lost.

Leré was also struck by the niceness of her female guide (sadly anonymous) and specifically office staff like Carmen Solomons. ''We'll be going every year.''

In between, the MTN Sciencentre hosted the grade 5s from Oakhurst Primary, led by teacher Pam Frost, and the kids from Forres Preparatory school, led by teacher Lyn Richards. Both schools hail from Rondebosch.

In the same week, the science centre was visited by 118 grade 6 students from the mixed Afrikaans/English school known as Sid G. Rule primary school under teacher Jerome Jeniker in Grassy Park.

''We go regularly to the science centre,'' said Jerome Jeniker. ''It was quite different this year because they offered us workshops on the planets and there was much more to do.''

Two religious private schools, Laerskool Paul Greyling from VisHoek (Fish Hoek) and the grades R and the grades 4 from the Christian Private School (CPM) in Malmesbury also visited. CPM teacher Henriette Smit said, ''it was excellent and all my parents loved it.''

Parents? Turns out that Mevrou Smit had 50 parents and grandparents there to ''accompany'' the 24 children. ''Some came just to see what was going on,'' she confirmed. But not to worry that this altered the focus: ''the children enjoyed it as well.''

Kulula.com and SAA unite

Julie Cleverdon, Jani De Bruin and Busi Maqubela (above) are off on Tuesday to attend the Southern African Association of Science and Technology Centres (SAASTEC), being held this year in Bayworld in Port Elizabeth.

Busi will be speaking on 'tools we've used in communicating global warming and climate change at the MTN Sciencentre' on Wednesday November 28th.

Julie will be talking about our fabulous mobile science laboratory, and has given her talk the title 'mellow, yellow and it's a jolly smart fellow' - and this is also on Wednesday the 28th.

Jani says she has taken a vow of silence and will not be talking on any issue. Odd, that. Also odd: the blogmeister has not one decent photo of Jani. So if anyone out there has one ... you know where to find me!

They return on Friday. SAA one way, Kulula.com the other.

math holiday camp

Detlef Basel (above) and Eloise Nefdt go with the mobile science centre on Monday November 26 to a three-day maths and science camp at the Cape Academy of Mathematics and Science, the relatively new boarding school for promising high school students from across the province.

So they will be hanging out in the leafy green Cape Town suburb of Tokai, overlooked by Table Mountain. Who said science has to be tough?

Speakers at the camp include financial sector mathematician Dr Diane Wilcox, until recently a lecturer at the University of Cape Town, and participants such as Achmat Adams, Emmanuel Mushayikwa and Jonathan Clarke.

On day two, the kids do oceanography at Kalk Bay harbour and then hone their orienteering skills on a hike over the mountain back to Tokai. Maths and science projects are the main focus, however.

The programme is a joint effort by the University of Cape Town and the Western Cape education department. Organiser Naphtali Mokgalapa says a girls' camp is scheduled for next week.

Aligning with the Non-Aligned Movement

The MTN Sciencentre has been invited to participate in the Non-Aligned Movement's fifth international workshop on enhancing change through science centres, in Gauteng in February 2008.

The Non-Aligned Movement grew out of the Cold War hostilities between the then Soviet Union (now Russia) and the USA. (thanks to Wikipedia for the map above - light blue countries have observer status, dark blue represents NAMers).

As ideological differences between communism and capitalism created a polarised ''you're either with us or you're against us'' mentality, NAM was formed in the 1950s to create a neutral breathing space for many countries which were too poor or too independent to get caught up in the confrontation.

With 118 nations as members, about half the world's population falls under the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned Movement and other developing countries, based in New Delhi in India, has been organising such workshops since their first was held in Kolkata in India in 2002.

One workshop was held in Bogotá, Colombia with the assistance of the Maloka Science Centre in 2004. Another was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2004, and one was held last year in Lusaka, Zambia in partnership with the National Science Centre of Zambia.

Somehow, Boksburg - the venue for the three-day workshop in February - doesn't sound nearly as exotic, does it?

The return of Lego League

Sadly, Sunday's FIRST Lego League friendly robotics tournament had to be cancelled. This was upsetting for the teens from the Kiddiwinks team as well as the Funky Moneky Clan from Somerset College and the Live Wires team from Belgravia High in Athlone.

''We were so sad,'' said Bashiera Allie, the team leader for Live Wires.

Other teams, including All Sparks, led by Aakirah Firfirey from Belgravia High in Athlone, simply had to cancel because the end-of-school-year marks had to be in by noon on Monday. Teachers sinply had to work all weekend marking papers.

A number of teams - Dynamic Dynamos from Science Educational Resources Initiative (SERI) in Khayeltisha, Robotronics from Bishops College in Rondebosch - sent apologies because the schools have already broken up for South Africa's holidays.

It is thought that the schools that didn't respond - including Micro Maniacs, the provincial champions from Elkanah House in Tableview - may have already ended for the holidays, with exams done and the lure of the beach overwhelming!

Guy Fawkes to Diwali

This week is bookended by two events: on Monday, always game for a celebration, we set off sparklers in honour of a really unsuccessful British criminal (maybe we could have given him some tips, we blow up so many ATMs so well?) during Guy Fawkes night.

On Saturday, it's the triumph of good over evil in the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, which is being celebrated near the canal running behind the MTN Sciencentre here at Canal Walk.

Bookings coordinator Carmen Solomons says fireworks can also be expected when staffers light fires and set off explosions during their shows. As on Monday, when staff took the Mobile Sciencentre to Scottsville Primary. And as on Thursday, when the same Mellow Yellow van heads off to Zimasa Primary, the Xhosa/English school spearheaded by the community in Goodwood.

Here at the Sciencentre, we're being visited by a wide variety of schools across the province, including Meulenhof Primary from Malmesbury, the West Coast Christian Academy, Piketberg High - which serves a large Afrikaans-speaking farming community from the West Coast region - and Laerskool Riebeeck-Kasteel, from the Boland village inland, organised by teacher Isabel Roets-Geldenhuys

Meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sponsored visits so we can be visited this week by the kids from the Desmond Mpilo Tutu secondary school, named after the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel peace prize laureate.

The Desmond Mpilo Tutu school's in Mbekweni, a location in the nearby fruit-growing and wine-making agricultural town of Paarl. Close to sixty percent of the parents are unemployed and the payment of school fees, however low, presents them with difficulties. So the DST sponsorship makes a big difference to the dedicated teachers.

DST has also sponsored a visit from Kasselsvlei High, an Afrikaans and English-speaking Dinaledi (Morning Star) school showing above-average results in mathematics and science.

Kasselvlei has had some fireworks we can do without. Last week, four pupils at the Bellville school were suspended after two vicious assaults, using a golf club, on a Grade 10 girl. The girl, who has been accused of starting the fight over a chocolate earlier this week, has also been suspended. One of the suspended boys filmed the attack on his cellphone, and this has become evidence.

Definitely the kind of fireworks we can live without!

Kevin Woods

The publishers 30° South will be using the MTN Sciencentre to launch their new autobiography: ''The Kevin Woods Story: In the Shadow of Mugabe's Gallows''. Woods will launch his memoir of life (and imprisonment) as a double agent at our Ericcson auditorium on Thursday 15th November, 2007, from 18:30-20:00

“I have lost so many years of my life that my future is now behind me,” says Kevin Woods. He was a double agent for the South African apartheid government under PW Botha as well as for Robert Mugabe's Central Intelligence Organization in the 80s before being sentenced to death on 18th December 1988.

''They don’t use the words, “You are sentenced to death” in Zimbabwe,'' Woods says. ''The judge just said, “You are convicted of murder with constructive intent for which there is only one sentence.” Then, he just stood up and walked out. I was alone in court that day.''

He was incarcerated in the notorious Chikurubi maximum security prison in Harare, Zimbabwe for two decades. He spent five years naked on death row.

''I was locked up naked in Chikurubi’s death row for five years, alone and in a cell twenty-three hours of every day. I could not see if it was day or night and I was not allowed into the sunlight in the exercise yard. During my exercise time I would stand and gaze down the corridor leading to the exercise yard with such a profound longing to feel the sun’s warmth on my naked body that I’d think sometimes my heart would squeeze itself shut with heartache.''

Nelson Mandela asked ZANU-PF leader Robert Mugabe for Woods freedom in the 90s but this fell on deaf ears.

''It was close, so close to despair so many times. I made a rope out of shredded blanket, but somehow I endured, often just till the next day. “Just till tomorrow, Woodsie,” I’d tell myself. “Just till tomorrow.”

Finally, a year ago, he received a presidential pardon. A friend handed him a cell phone. ''“What do I do with this?” I asked. He showed me how to switch it on and the rest of that day dissolved into phone call after phone call, starting with my children, whom I hadn’t spoken to for nearly two decades.''

For more information, contact Jane Lewis on 011 673 2218 or email jane@30degreessouth.co.za. The website is www.30degreessouth.co.za

Deutsche Schule Kapstadt

The MTN Sciencentre was part of the Deutsche Schule (Cape Town) bazaar last Saturday, 3 November, on the slopes of Lion's Head.

Detlef Basel, Eloise Nefdt and volunteer Michael Williams attended the event. Detlef, the proud grandfather of two new babies, also did a science show.

Michael is an astonishing young man. He dropped out of Malibu High School in grade 10 after his taxi driver father was shot dead in one of the bitter taxi war disputes over route allocations in Bellville.



Michael's mother, an unregistered domestic worker, didn't realise that it was against the law for the school to insist that she paid the full school fees. So Michael dropped out to try to find work to support his family.

But work is hard to come by, so Michael has been increasing his skills (and his employability) by working as a volunteer at the MTN Sciencentre. Until this week, he didn't realise that he had the right to finish his education.

But now, at the age of 19, the school may try to block him on the grounds that he's too old. So we've given him the details of the Further Education and Training colleges in Bellville. And we're going to nag ....



The Deutsche Internationale Schule Kapstadt (DSK) in Tamboerskloof celebrated its annual fête with a day jam-packed with genuine Gemütlichkeit, traditional delicacies, an art exhibition and loads of fun for the kids.

The Bavaria Beer Tent was pumping with live oompah music by the time the weary MTN Sciencentre crew was packing up, after a day of entertainment by smaller ensembles including the school's own rock and marimba bands.

Facebook

MTN Sciencentre is slowing getting used to the digital age. We're trying to put some of our material on Facebook, the incredibly popular social networking website.

For example, the rooibos tea science café coming up next weekend has been posted on Facebook. So has the Royal Society of South Africa talk this month by MTN Sciencentre founder Mike Bruton, now with MTE Studios, who will be talking about a thousand years of superb Islamic achievements in science.

If you want us to form a Facebook group, let us know, by emailing info@mtnsciencentre.org.za.

Tik Tik Bang!

The MTN Sciencentre now has an exhibition on tik, the cheap and highly addictive drug linked to the gang warfare and perlemoen smuggling in the Western Cape.

Andreas Plüddemann (seen above) was quoted on the www.scienceinAfrica website as saying, "Nowhere else in the world has tik taken off in the way we are finding in these specific communities."

It would be interesting to see what Plüddemann, who's based at the Medical Research Council's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Group, thinks of our exhibit, which is sponsored by the Western Cape Education Department.

From the outside, it's hard to believe that any teenager would want to risk having a stroke, memory loss or rotten teeth. But Plüddemann, who's also completing his doctoral degree through the University of Cape Town's Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, says, "It's a special problem. Adolescents, the 12- to 19-year olds, react very severely to tik. The fallout is serious."

The MRC runs a project called the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (Sacendu) in six South Africa sites, including Cape Town. This has found that the demand for drug treatment for problems relating to tik is substantially greater in the city than other parts of the country.

"Since 2004 there has been a sharp surge of people coming forward for help, such is the rapid addiction rate," says Plüddemann. "This is extremely striking in terms of drug trends. Nothing else has taken that kind of sharp upward surge."

"We're just not getting it right when it comes to the non-content education in our schools," says Plüddemann. "We need to include substance abuse into our education. The life skills programmes are not hitting the mark. Educators must work with the kids, their teachers, principals, governing bodies, parents and the wider communities."

There are other aspects to tik that need special efforts. Consider that the backroom laboratories manufacturing the drug have to be cleared by teams specialising in biohazardous matter, such are the health hazards of the by-products in the process.

"There is an urgent need for research," he says, "not only to assess the prevalence of tik, but also to get a better understanding of the link between tik use and mental health problems and sexual risk behaviour."

The Times, November 1

The Times newspaper ran their report on the FIRST Lego League (seen above, in a picture supplied by organiser Peter Pretorius) on Thursday, November 1, profiling Elkanah House and using a photograph of a team from Kiddiwinks.

Since South Africa and Egypt are the only countries out of 50 that participate in the student robot championships, we would like to urge science organisations and schools in countries like Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Nigeria to join us - we need the competition!

Sunday Times

Julie Cleverdon - seen here hosting the 2007 Western Cape championships at the FIRST Lego League robot championships - appears in another guise in the Career Times section of South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper on November 4.

The newspaper has chosen her to appear in their new jobs section, announcing that she's been appointed as head of the MTN Sciencentre.

pictures from FIRST Lego League

Pictures of the 2007 Western Cape FIRST Lego League have been uploaded at:

http://robotrix.bizland.com/WP-Champs%202007/index.html

Micro Maniacs win 2007 Cape FIRST Lego League

Michael Struwig, Jonathan Wotherspoon and Davis Todt kneel down with the team's yellow Lego-block trophies, victorious at the end of the hard-fought 2007 Western Cape robotic championships, backed by team-mates Daniel Stokell, Dylan Vorster, Allister Smith and Daniel Jacobs.

The boys will be keeping a close eye on Sebokeng/Vanderbijlpark region this Saturday, which will be crawling, buzzing and whirring with robots. Forty schools from across Gauteng, the northern Free State, North West Province, and Mpumalanga have entered the northern championships at the Mittal Steel Science Centre.

The Micro Maniacs team from Elkanah House, a school in Tableview, will be battling whichever robots win in the Sebokeng/Vanderbijlpark region at the nationals later this year.

The Micro Maniac's coach, teacher Melany Liebich, said her team has now won the Western Cape championships for two years in a row.

One of her team members, Michael Struwig, a grade nine student, said Elkanah House was the highest-ranked team out of all the 2006 regionals. Sadly, due to a design flaw - a tank-style tread which stripped off in the heat of battle - the Micro Maniacs finished eighth in the nationals last year.

''This year we hope to do better at the nationals,'' predicted Michael, noting pointedly that the students designed their 2007 robot to use four wheels rather than a tank tread. ''And better gearing,'' he added.

i-Robo team enjoys Lego League

Wandile Ganya, Vuyelwa Dlungane and Loyiso Matyumza pose with Tiro Motaung (their coach) peering over fellow team members Azola Hobongwana and Bulumko Matshoba.

They are members of the i-Robo team - grade 10 students from Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) school in Khayelitsha - who fought bravely in the 2007 FIRST Lego League championships at the MTN Sciencentre on Saturday October 27.

The team suffered several setbacks this year.

Wandile Ganya was feverishly revising the design of their robots on Saturday morning after being told that the attachments did not meet the specifications required, which were buried in pages of data.

Later the students discovered that obstacles from previous missions were not cleared between events, forcing their robots to maneouvre around blockages on the field of battle.

Coach Tiro Motaung said he was more upset at the results than his students were, who enjoyed the competition regardless.

Next year, he suggested, a preliminary try-out might be a good idea a week or so beforehand so students can get their competition nerves and fluffs out of the way.

With many students not having English as a mother tongue, Mr Motaung noted, it was difficult for them to understand the written instructions unless there was a strong graphic element.

* Thanks to Steve Sherman from Living Maths, who sent these photos off at an ungodly hour on Sunday evening, going above and beyond the call of duty.

Belgravia High robotics team win best coach

The Live Wires from Belgravia High, above, won the prizes for best coach for Mr Reagen Ford as well as for the most innovative research at the FIRST Lego League, said teacher Ghairoe Jacobs.

The team members of the Live Wires group, as pictured, are: (sitting) Aghtiri Mohamed, Bashiera Allie, Raheema Enus and Ryan Adams. Standing: Mehtaab Khan, Fehraaz Petersen, a supporter (Tabasum Mohamed), Jasson Kloppers, Imraan Kaprey, Adrian Rudolph, Zubair Banderker, and another fan/spectator (Zaahira Allie).

''Mr Ford (below) is the best teacher ever, he really deserves it,'' said Bashiera Allie. ''I think Saturday was the best day of my life. It was the first time that I partook in an event like this. It was just awesome.''



''Hopefully we can join next year again. It was a really an experience of a life time,'' Bashiera, the Live Wires team leader, said. ''I wish we could turn back time: all the memories, all the fun and all the fights made this the best, something I wouldn’t exchange for anything. Life is all about having fun and we had the most fun that day.''

Sadly, the team placed sixth in the Western Cape round of robotics, held at the MTN Sciencentre, Mrs Jacobs said. Nonetheless, she said, the learners enjoyed the experience.

''Generally, they found the tournament exciting and a good learning experience,'' she said. ''During the preparation, relationships are normally riddled with torment but at the end of the day it brings them closer together and cements them in unity.''

The Live Wires are all in grade 11, with ages ranging from 15 to 17. The school is situated in Athlone, and in particular Belgravia Estate.

Most of the learners originate from the surrounding areas like Rylands, Lansdowne and Athlone.

Thanks to Steve Sherman from Living Maths, who supplied the photo. Belgravia school is on 021 6965118.

Julie Cleverdon

Science Centre ''World Cup'' organiser

The MTN Sciencentre has appointed Julie Cleverdon as director of the popular attraction, which dominates the west end of the Canal Walk shopping mall in Cape Town and gets over 150,000 visitors a year.

Earlier this year, Cleverdon was part of the bid team which flew to the European Conference for Science Centres and Museums (ECSITE) in Portugal to ensure that South Africa could be the first country on this continent to host the sixth Science Centre World Congress in June 2011.

Cleverdon now sits on the 2011 Congress organising committee for what is considered the science centre equivalent of the rugby world cup. The MTN Sciencentre will be the host venue.

Perhaps she's been influenced by Jake White, her classmate from Lord Milner primary school in Settlers outside Bela Bela (the former Warmbaths). When White was appointed to coach the South African rugby team, in a nostalgic interview with the Limpopo newspaper Die Pos, he singled out Cleverdon as one of the few classmates he could remember from those days.

Alfred Tsipa, president of the Southern African Association of Science and Technology Education Centres (SAASTEC), said Cleverdon was due to deliver a paper on mobile science centres at their tenth annual conference at Bayworld in Port Elizabeth at the end of November, which will also see the launch of government's new Youth Into Science strategy.

''She's running one of the flagship science centres in the country,'' Tsipa said from his base at the University of Zululand science centre in Richard's Bay in KwaZulu-Natal. ''The MTN Sciencentre is a viable and commercially successful effort, and it's also highly unusual because it's been located in a shopping mall for seven years. Even overseas, I don't know of a science centre in a shopping mall but it's really practical location, it's going strong because it brings the science to the people.''

Cleverdon has also been closely involved with outreach efforts initiated by the Department of Science and Technology, including National Science Week, the annual SciFest Africa festival in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, and branding every October as Astronomy Month.

Her adventures living in a private game park with a lesser bush baby are being worked into a children's book by The Witness journalist Sue Segar. An inveterate traveller, Cleverdon has just returned from India and has visited both Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, Egypt, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Cleverdon succeeds MTN Sciencentre founder, Professor Mike Bruton, who now works down the road in Century City at the MTE Studios, the designers of the Sultans of Science exhibit on Islamic inventors which is currently on display in the USA.

* For more information, please contact Julie Cleverdon at 083 276 9501 or 021 5298110 (switchboard 021 5298100) or email julie.cleverdon@mtnsciencentre.org.za

The Times newspaper, October 25

GOLD MEDALS: Sive Nunu, left, and Lungelwa Tyeda from Intlanganiso High School in Khayelitsha

Live wires tackle shack fires

Published:Oct 25, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EMPOWERING: The annual Eskom Expo For Young Scientists encourages teenagers to communicate their discoveries in way that is accessible to their peers



Two Grade 11 pupils from Khayelitsha walked away with gold medals for their work, writes Christina Scott.

The national Expo For Young Scientists finals in Pretoria were an electrifying experience for teenagers Lungelwa Tyeda and Sive Nunu.

It was not electrifying because Eskom sponsors the expo, or because the subject of their display was the prevention of electrical fires in Khayelitsha’s densely populated Site C, where they live.

It was electrifying because, as a judge walked towards their exhibit, the 16-year-olds from Intlanganiso High School were connecting their equipment using an unfamiliar system of wiring. The surge protector tripped the power supply. The entire row of displays was plunged into darkness.

“We have learnt something,” said Sive ruefully. “We mustn’t do things when we’re not sure!”

But at the end of the day, the two Grade 11 students walked away with gold medals for their project, which used interviews with residents of their township to highlight the role played by dangerous electricity practices in starting shack fires.

The winners say their project was inspired by the need to prevent the frequent electrical fires in their informal settlement, which often lead to severe injury.

“We wanted to look at the main causes of the fires: people not switching off their electricity, cable theft, children getting shocked by live electrical wires left exposed by cable thieves and incorrect electrical wiring,” said Lungelwa. “Houses are burning each and every day because of illegal connections.”

They spent weekends and hours after school distributing questionnaires to neighbours. Then their work appeared at the Khanyagula Expo, now funded by telecommunications company Tellumat and facilitated by the Medical Research Council.

Khanyagula was started in 1997 by a small group of school science teachers from Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Guguletu and Langa.

Khalipha Ramahlape, community liaison officer for the Medical Research Council said: “The recent gold medals, as well as the increase in participation by underprivileged communities at the expo, are a manifestation of our passion to develop the next generation.”

Appearances in the Cape Town finals of the Expo For Young Scientists, which were held at the MTN Sciencentre, helped the two gospel-loving girls develop faith in their own abilities.

Lungelwa, lives with her little brother and her father, who is an unemployed foreman. Her mother and two sisters live in Nqamakwe in the Eastern Cape.

Describing the national finals, Lungelwa said: “Everyone there is very competent, so you must fight for yourself. We learned that you have to make you own way to the gold medal.”

It was the duo’s first visit to Pretoria.


“We stayed in hotels, it was so fabulous. The rooms, they are so nice. Their showers!” Lungelwa exclaimed. “There are no showers in houses in Site C. We have a tap in the yard.”

Sive’s gold medal hangs on the bedroom wall of her father’s Site C home. Most of the homes in the neighbourhood are made of wood and zinc. Illegal electricity connections dangle from rooftops.

Her father and her mother were very supportive,” she said.

The support of Chris Diwu, a science teacher at Intlanganiso High School, was also critical.

“When we came back from Pretoria with the gold medals, they introduced us to the whole school at assembly,” said Sive.

“ Our teacher was so happy. When we got to class , everyone clapped and he took a photo.”

Sive’s research for the Expo has resulted in her falling in love with engineering. And, despite her family having little money , she’s determined to study further.

“I want to prove that anyone who trusts themself can become an engineer,” she said. “Even if you’re a girl.”

In the meantime, both girls are working on their singing skills. Their cellphone voicemail messages, which ask callers to speak after the beep, are delivered gospel- style — soprano for Sive, alto for Lungelwa.

But they’re practising their maths as well as their music.

“Most people don’t want to do maths,” said Sive. “I think practice makes perfect. If you really want to do something, you have to ask in order to know it. I enjoy it and I like to practise it.”

They’re already planning to enter the 2008 Expo, even though they will be writing their matric exams next year. “We need to start preparing for it next month — after exams,” said Lungelwa.

They’re also good ambassadors for the competition and go out of their way to encourage other students to participate in it.

“There are many opportunities if you enter. For junior scientists it’s really amazing,” Sive said.

“You can win scholarships, you can win a trip overseas and you can experience a lot,” Lungelwa said.

She also praised the sponsors and organisers of the Expo For Young Scientists: “They’re doing a lot for many children. We really appreciate what they have done for us. ”

Detlef Basel of the MTN Sciencentre, who is a director of the Eskom Expo For Young Scientists, said:

“It’s incredible that the Western Cape students received 11 gold awards out of 22. That was quite superb, a brilliant effort by the learners.”

Rustenburg Girls Junior School

Shahied van Nelson (above) and Siphosetu ''Dudu'' Dudumashe are bringing the MTN Sciencentre's mobile laboratory to the Rustenburg Girls' Junior School on Main Road in Rondebosch on Saturday October 27 for the school's annual fund-raising Morning Market.



Shahied (seen here demonstrating that he always keeps a fire extinguisher handy)and Dudu will be putting on two chemistry explosion shows as well as putting out the mobile discovery stations for kids and adults to play.



This is the mobile science van's first visit to the historic school, founded in 1894, although some of the buildings date back to Dutch colonial times.

FIRST Lego League's Pyro Maniacs

Ian Swart, Kyle Johnson and Andre Schwartz designing the robot which will be in action today at the FIRST Lego League tournament, on the theme of ''power puzzle.''

Other members of the team: Thoriso Tsheole, Jonathan Kukard and Michael Hedenskog.

Candace Rennie, the coach, predicts great things!

Micro Maniacs return to FIRST Lego League

Daniel Stokell and Jonathan Wotherspoon working on the board game in preparation for today's FIRST Lego League robotics challenge, from 10 am to 3 pm at the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town.

Daniel and Jonathan are part of the Micro Maniacs team from Elkanah House, according to ''coach'' and teacher Melany Liebich.



Other team members are Dylan Vorster, seen above programming the robot, as well as Davis Todt, Daniel Jacobs, Allister Smith and Michael Struwig, said Melany, who does technology, design, visual art and arts and culture at the Tableview school.

Fifteen-year-old Michael Struwig, from Blaauwberg, warned the other 17 teams competing in the Western Cape finals that the Elkanah House teams intended to retain their winning position from last year's event.

Michael, a grade nine student, said Elkanah House was the highest-ranked team out of all the 2006 regionals. Sadly, due to a design flaw - a tank-style tread which stripped off in the heat of battle - the Micro Maniacs finished eighth in the nationals last year.

''This year we hope to do better at the nationals,'' predicted Michael, noting pointedly that the students designed their 2007 robot to use four wheels rather than a tank tread. ''And better gearing,'' he added.

Teacher Melany Liebich can be reached by email on melanyl@elkanah.co.za.

Matjiesfontein

A belated thank you to Maryke (above) for stepping in at the last minute to guide the very enjoyable trip to Sutherland on the weekend of October 20.

Maryke replaced Michelle Hopley, who went down with hay fever, and was accompanied by John Crossland.

Maryke was the official photographer on the trip so she was involved in most pictures - but she was behind the camera, not in front!

This was taken at the antique car museum in the historic small town of Matjiesfontein on the way back from visiting the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the single biggest telescope in our half of the planet, as part of national astronomy month in October.

FIRST Lego League returns

FIRST Lego League returns to the MTN Sciencentre on Saturday October 27 2007!

An international robotics competition (see above, with Western Cape education minister Cameron Dugmore monitoring proceedings) comes to Cape Town on the morning of Saturday October 27.

''Bring your ear plugs, or your vuvuzelas, for the First Lego League tournament,'' said the host, Julie Cleverdon, director of the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk shopping mall.

''It's noisy,'' happily admitted head judge Peter Pretorius, managing director of the non-profit science communication organisation ZelTech in Vanderbijlpark, who flies into the city on Thursday to prepare for the event.

''It's the only science event where children actually shout for science,'' he said. ''What is important for me is to make it so they can shout the same way they do in the rugby world cup final, to get the children really excited.''

17 teams are participating, with robots racing against the clock to perform tasks from 10 am until 3 pm, said Jani de Bruin of the MTN Sciencentre. She encouraged people to attend the competition, saying the centre was having a special R10 entry for the day.

14-year-old student Nanzi Siyo from the Science Education Resources Initiative (SERI) in Khayelitsha participated in the FIRST Lego League last year. ''The competition was tough, the other teams were brilliant and we did very badly,'' remembered the grade nine Luhlaza High School student.

''But then, we didn't have the experience. Now, we are confident about our project
and we expect to do very well.''

Nanzi described the robots as being shoe-sized: ''Size 7.''

Her colleague in the Dynamic Dynamos team, Sive Gladile, said the students built the robots under the guidance of coach (and teacher) Peter Oxenham and programmed them to perform missions. ''Ja, I'm a bit nervous, I haven't experienced this yet,'' she admitted.



Their team will be up against Belgrava High, Westerford, American International School of Cape Town, Bishops, SACS junior school, Elkanah House and Somerset College, as well as Kiddiwinks shop and the ORT-tech programme.

The i-Robo team is composed of grade 10 students Izola Hobongwana, Loyiso Matyumza, Bulumko Matshoba, Wandile Ganya and Vuyelwa Dlungane from Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) school in Khayelitsha.

''I'm hoping they'll be in the top five,'' predicted coach Tiro Motaung from
Rondebosch. ''The Lego League competitions are a fun activity to see and
participate in but I think the students have already had the most fun when
they got the kits for the first time. They were overwhelmed by the small
Lego pieces. The process of building the machines and trying to understand
what they do caused a lot of laughter.''

The Cape Town students form a fraction of the international total: 100,000
children from 50 countries participate in the FIRST Lego League each year.
Only South Africa and Egypt participate from the African continent.

''For me, to watch the children performing on the playing field, seeing the
passion with which they approach science and engineering and technology, is
absolutely fabulous,'' head judge Peter Pretorius said.

''I love robots,'' Pretorius said. ''I started with computers and it was
just a natural advancement into robots, they're just computers that move
around.''

The Cape Town event kicks of a nationwide series of FIRST Lego League
events, including a tournament in Gauteng the following weekend (November
3), a special tournament for Jewish schools in Sandton and an Eastern Cape
competition on December 1 at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in
Port Elizabeth.

Saturday morning's event is being underwritten by the Canal Walk Foundation,
the first corporate social investment programme to have been created by a
South African shopping centre, said Vanessa Herbst. ''We support education, so naturally we support what the FIRST Lego League is doing.''


Note to eds: fabulous photos available from earlier FIRST Lego Leagues on
request from Jani de Bruin on 021 5298128 or 0823 276 9509 or email
jani.debruin@mtnsciencentre.org.za

Team contacts:

Elkanah House: Melany Liebich T: 021 554 8139 C: 083 928 8732 Email:
melanyl@elkanah.co.za

Somerset College: Tony Shuttleworth T: 021 856 3843 Email:
tshuttleworth@worldonline.co.za

SACS Junior: Eloise Baker T: 021 689 4110 Email: bakerma@iafrica.com

American International School of Cape Town: Rick Briggs T: 021 713 2220
rbriggs@aisct.org.za

Bishops: Mervin Walsh C: 084 658 9599 H: 021 658 6587 mwalsh@bishops.org.za

Belgravia High: Ghairoe Jacobs C: 084 584 1898 geejacobs@yahoo.com

Westerford High: Andre Engel T: 021 689 9154 F: 021 685 5675
AE@whs.wcape.school.za

Kiddiwinks: Kevin Poulter C: 082 882 6164 info@kiddiwinks.co.za

Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT): Tiro Motaung T: 084 899 2754
Tiro.motaung@gmail.com

Science Education Resources Initiative (SERI) Peter Oxenham C: 076 171 6208
peter@seri.org.za

ORT Tech: Kevin Valensky T: 021 529 8168 kevin@ortsa.org.za

Peter Pretorius is available for interviews in English and Afrikaans on 082
479 2714. His website is http://www.zeltech.org/

For more information on the First Lego League, their website is
www.FirstLegoLeague.org

Pebbles Project

The following was posted on 22 October 2007 by Pebbles Project for special-needs children, an organisation which is a fan of the MTN Sciencentre's activities.

The project organisers traveled to London to partake in the Wines of South Africa Mega Tasting. Pebbles had a stand at the show with application forms for Sponsor a Child and the first ever Pebbles Christmas cards, featuring three of the children Pebbles supports in their red Christmas hats.

Pebbles raised a total of R200,000 over the week they were there. The money raised from this London tour will enable Pebbles to implement weekly educational trips for the crèche and afterschool children. These trips mean almost 80 children a week can visit places such as the MTN Science centre, the Spier Cheetah outreach programme, the Nature Reserve and have fun yet educational days out.

For more information email sophia@pebblesproject.co.za or visit www.pebblesproject.co.za.

Adrian Tiplady

This is a reminder that Dr Adrian Tiplady from the team bidding for South Africa to host the astonishing Square Kilometre Array telescope will be speaking at the MTN Sciencentre tonight, October 17 2007, as part of national astronomy month.

Adrian will be talking from 7 to 8, followed by night-sky viewing on the roof of the science centre.

Kite Festival

The 2007 Kite Festival takes place at Zandvlei in Muizenberg this weekend, October 20 and 21. Charles Phillips and two other members of the MTN Sciencentre team will be there with the mobile science van and portable exhibitions for kids big and small to play with in between making and flying kites.

SALT

Michelle Hopley and John Crossland are taking a busload of visitors to overnight in Sutherland this weekend, to view the Southern Africa Large Telescope (SALT). The trip is completely sold out. And they get to stop off in Matjiesfontein on their way up to the Northern Cape, leaving Saturday morning and returning Sunday afternoon.

Michelle, age 22, hails from Glenhaven in Bellville. The MTN Sciencentre is her first job, and she's been here for a year. And this will be her first visit to Sutherland. She says she's 'very excited.'

The trip is being sponsored by SAASTA.

Rooibos Tea Party

ROOIBOS REFRESHMENTS AT 09:30
SCIENCE CAFÉ AT 10:00 - 11:30

Can Rooibos reduce the risk of heart disease?
Can Rooibos combat cancer?
What happens to Rooibos in the body?
Announcement of Rooibos clinical trials

Hear about the latest frontiers in Rooibos research from this panel of researchers:

Dr Jeanine Marnewick, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Professor Wentzel Gelderblom and Dr Kareemah Gamieldien, Medical Research Council
Professor Lizette Joubert, Agricultural Research Council
Debora van der Merwe, Stellenbosch University
RSVP 5 November 2007; marina@southernscience.co.za
Enquiries: Marina Joubert; 083 409 4254

Haroon Moolla

Haroon Moolla, a grade 11 student at Rondebosch Boys High School, is clearly a team-player of note. When this picture was taken, the results were coming through from the 2007 Pan African Mathematics Olympiad (PAMO) earlier this year in Abuja, Nigeria in April 2005. Team South Africa took first place, so here we see members Haroon Moolla, Kylie Fenner (holding the team mascot Chebyshev), team leader Koos van Zyl, and members Francois Conradie and Nicky van der Mey.

Haroon shared sixth place with Kylie Fenner of Reddam House Atlantic Seaboard to take silver.

Move forward a few months: now Haroon Moolla has collaborated with Rondebosch Boys High School classmate Nassir Bassier to produce an exhibit on Water purification and distribution in rural areas, which wins them a gold at the MTN Sciencentre-hosted citywide finals.

And then fast forward to the national finals of the Eskom Expo For Young Scientists. Harron and Nassir have won silver. A national and an international competition, same year, different specialities, and winning medal in both: that's impressive.

Want to know more about the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad?

A total of 32 contestants from nine African countries took part, writing two tough problem-solving papers over two days.

South Africa finished first with 104 points, followed by Nigeria and Cameroon, on 74 points each. The other countries’ scores were Benin (71), Mali (32), Zimbabwe (31), Burkina Faso (30), Swaziland (22) and Ghana (7).

Abigail Gotlieb

We expect to see more of the Gotlieb family - Abigail, left, younger sister Jessica, and their doctor dad - here at the science centre.

Why? Because Abigail Gotlieb, from Herzlia Senior School, won a gold medal at the Eskom Expo For Young Scientists 2007 national competitions for her investigation into the relationship between breast cancer and Hormone Replace Therapy (HRT).

HRT, according to Wikipedia (today, at any rate) is a system of medical treatment for menopausal women, based on the assumption that it may prevent discomfort and health problems caused by diminished hormones.

The treatment involves a series of drugs designed to artificially boost hormone levels. The main types of hormones involved are estrogens and sometimes testosterone