Peering into Peer's Cave

Come to Fish Hoek and go back thousands of years in time via Peer's Cave. This is a very cool way to celebrate African Origins Month in September.

The field trip is Saturday 8 September. Meet at 10 am at the cave, and spend the day on a guided tour.

Peer's Cave is famous for rock-climbing. Back before it was known as Peer's Cave, it was the anonymous spot where in 1926 to 1927, Victor Peers, his wife, and their son Bertie discovered many stone age tools and the remains of nine people from the Stone Age, one of whom became famous as 'Fish Hoek Man'.

The peerless Peers had long been interested in science, but their focus was more biology than archaeological. They discovered a mostly-blocked-up Peers' Cave in Fish Hoek and began excavating in May 1927 with the occasional help of Mrs Peers.

Peers Cave is a low shelter, 38 feet deep, looking south-east towards nearby hills, wholly protected from the raging north-east winds. The shelter is under the buttresses of a small group of hills isolated from the main Kalk Bay range. They're immediately above and opposite the entrance to the Kalk Bay pier but the front of the shelter is shielded by rock and bush, making it less visible.

What did the Peers (father, mother and son) discover? Early on, two crude pounders were found embedded in deposits of sea shell after two feet of the floor was dug up.
Careful sifting of the shells found artistry: punched or bored shells, as you would use for beads and decoration.

Deeper, further in, a number of human toe and finger bones were discovered, and other fragments of an infant skeleton disturbed by the previous excavators.

Many other fascinating relics of the past were found, echoes from our long-gone ancestors: a few stone implements, some no larger than a fingernail. Fragments of woven reed. Mother-of-pearl ornaments. A piece of rope. Bone awls and arrow-points. Crude stones shaped to crack open stubborn shells. Stones bored to have a doughnut-shaped hole through their centre. Beads of ostrich egg-shell.

The residents of Peer's Cave, a prime piece of beachfront property, were clearly Strandlopers. Beachcombers.



Then the big discovery was made. Tucked away under the little shelters to the rear of the cave, three adult skeletons. Most had been buried face downwards, with the legs folded under the stomach, and the arms tucked under the chest. Their teeth were all good. A flat stone had been laid on the shoulders by the mourners. Ostrich egg beads strung on stripes of hide hung around their necks.

One had the decayed remnants of medicine bags strung as a curative belt about her. Auntie evidently suffered from lameness.

Under another of these skeletons a fragment of rusted European iron was found, proving that this last burial was actually made after the early Portuguese voyagers has passed this way.

More bones were found. The most dramatic find of all, however, was that of a little skull.

It was older than the others. Older by tens of thousands of years. It lay at a greater depth than any other skeleton, almost black with age. And its bone structure was different from the later inhabitants.

Mrs Peers probably was not familiar with the concept of 'hlonipha' - respect. But she knew what to do. She decided that this small, blackened relic of a prehistoric past could not possibly be transported home in anything as homely as a rucksack.

She removed her own hat and laid the skull gently inside.

The skull represented our evolutionary ancestors, early humans who inhabited South Africa 15 000 years ago.

To this day, faint traces of ochre-painted fingers and hands mark the rock wall. Handprints from our past.

* Booking is mandatory. Contact Carmen Solomons at carmen.solomons@mtnsciencentre.org.za or phone Carmen at 021 529 8100.

* African Origins Month is sponsored by the Deparment of Science and Technology, led by Minister Mosibudi Mangena and implemented by the Southern African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement, led by Beverley Damonse.

SAILIng into the future

SAILI's comets blaze back into our part of the universe this Saturday.

The comets include students like Wendy Batyi from San Souci Girls High School and Anderson Chimphango of Pinelands High, seen here studying the MTE Studios' poster on the glider designed by Abbas ibn Farnas, the Muslim world's answer to the brilliant Leonardo da Vinci.

The Comets, 49 students in grade eight and nine, come here every other Saturday as part of SAILI - the Scientific and Industrial Leadership Initiative. It's a successful programme which encourages students who show promise in maths and sciences, and nurtures them, says MTN Sciencentre's Ruby Frans, who co-ordinates the programme.

The MTN Sciencentre offers the enrichment programme to early high school SAILI learners, known throughout the Sciencentre as the SAILI Comets, a very weak pun with strong science underpinning it. Still don't get it? Think of Halley's Comet, and all will become clear.


''When the students start here, they just know classroom science, but they learn so much more,'' says Ruby.

Ruby's organised lots of exciting speakers for the students, including archaeologist Sarah Wurz from Iziko Museums on September 15 as part of African Origins Month.



''The kids ask really relevant questions - even 'how much do you earn?' - and SAILI broadens their minds in terms of where they want to be one day. Science becomes comes so real, so applicable to them.''

In October, which is astronomy month, Ruby is bringing in astronomer Lea Labuschagne from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

Initiated in 2003, the Comets have been visible for five years now. Learners showing potential in maths and science start in the catchment programme at grade 6 level, hang out at the science centre for two years and then continue through high school and even at teriary level at other science education institutions.

By grade 7, the SAILI Cometeers are groomed for greater things by being placed in better, well-resourced, quality schools, such as Livingstone High School in Claremont and South Peninsula in Diep River. Other schools utilised by SAILI stars include Pinelands, Hottentots Holland or San Souci Girls High School, said Robbie Gow-Kleinschmidt, SAILI's director.



SAILI started in 1996. It's a Western Cape project, operating under the auspices of a section 21 non-profit company, the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC), a project close to the hearts of the people who began it, the vice-chancellors of the four universities in the region, who had grown frustrated at the lack of trained talent for their own classrooms and laboratories.

Much of SAILI is funded by the Gatsby, a charitable foundation in London which has been a stalwart from the beginning.



For more information on SAILI, contact Robbie Gow-Kleinschmidt 021 763 7161 (his direct line) or 021 763 7163 (switchboard), cellphone 083 441 8105 email, robgk@chec.ac.za

Monday Paper

'UCT members test young scientists'

That's the headline in the Monday Paper, the newspaper distributed by the University of Cape Town, on Monday (naturally), the 27th of August.

''UCT staff played a large role in the 25th annual Eskom Expo for Young Scientists held at the MTN Sciencentre in Century City,'' it begins.

Author Myolisi Gophe goes on to say ''About 650 grade six to 12 students, from 50 schools across the Cape Town Metropole trekked (actually, he wrote trecked, but I can't bear badly-spelt blogs, can you?) to the expo from 14 to 16 August.''

''About 60 judges, 17 of them staff and post-graduate students from UCT, selected winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals. The UCT members included mechanical engineering lecturer Brandon Reed, Norman Davies, manager of the Schools Development Unit, electrical engineering lecturer Samuel Ginsberg, Ruben Govender, a postgraduate student in mechanical engineering, and Renee Toerien and Gillian Sheridan, both from chemical engineering.

The 23 gold medalists will go on to compete at a national competition later in the year.''

Brimming with boffins

Now this is more like it! The People's Post, a widely-read community weekly newspaper published by NasPers, has an article on the recent Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, which was held at the MTN Sciencentre.

The headline: 'Suburbs brimming with boffins'. It mentions, among others, Naadirah Mukadam and Sameera Mohamed of Pinelands High, some of the 20-or-so winners who are going on to the nationals in Pretoria in September.

Stephanus Spammer of Wynberg Boys High and Westerford's Alex Erlank and Shaun Irwin are also mentioned. As is the MTN Sciencentre.

Brimming with boffins ... we like it.

Geekathon

And a big thank you goes to the fabulous young ladies from Herzlia, Jessica Puterman, 14, and Candice Schneider, 15, who appeared in The Atlantic Sun newspaper on Thursday August 23 with some of their work from the recent Eskom Expo for Young Scientists.

Jessica and Candice did their project on the new and very important vaccine for cervical cancer. It's amazing to see how research into vaccines has suddenly taken off again. There hasn't been this level of interest since the 1950s, when Jonas Salk became an international hero for developing a vaccine against the dreaded disease of polio.

Although we're not 100% convinced of the headline ''Kids flock to geekathon'' in The Atlantic Sun, we're delighted that reporter Megan Baadjies wrote about how popular the Expo was.

Famous again

Well done to all the boys from the Paul Roos Gymnasium, who came all the way from Stellenbosch to compete in the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists recently.

The Expo was held for the first time at the MTN Sciencentre.

And students Harish Vallabhapurapu and Timo Goosen (seen here), Jancke Eygelaar and Pieter Jansen van Rensburg, all from Paul Roos, appeared in photographs in the 'nuus' section of the weekly newspaper The Bolander on Wednesday August 22.

Mention was also made of Zimasa Combined School in Langa, which competed for the first time, and the hard work done by the judging panel, led by Peter Davidson, an information technology teacher from Fish Hoek.

We were particularly fond of the headline 'Young Scientsts go for gold, silver and bronze at MTN Expo.' Baie dankie, Bolander!

Checkmate

Ever seen the 2005 made-for-television American movie KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTH BRONX starring Ted Danson?

Danson starred as English teacher David MacEnulty (right) in this true story of heroism and inspiration, depicting one man’s struggle to better the lives of underprivileged children from part of New York City. By teaching these children chess, he transforms their lives and the lives of thousands of other kids, their families, and their neighborhoods.

Now meet the man himself: David MacEnulty! MTN Sciencentre is proud to invite South African teachers to a free two-day workshop at our premises in Canal Walk Shopping Mall in Cape Town.

Dates & Time: Friday 24 August, 3pm – 7pm Sunday 26 August, 9am – 5pm

David MacEnulty has been teaching chess in New York City for the past sixteen years. He took on the task of teaching chess to at-risk children at a large elementary school. MacEnulty learned that chess provided an extraordinary educational tool to build student self-esteem and the skills critical to success in academic life and beyond. MacEnulty is also the author of three children’s chess books for Random House. His various life experiences have allowed him to serve as a motivational speaker with a tremendous amount of stage presence. He is a gifted speaker with a wonderful and inspiring story to tell.

Please confirm attendance before Thursday 23 August 2007 and let us know whether you will attend one or both days.

RSVP: lente@netpoint.co.za (021) 705-7863 or 084 710 2434

And enjoy this still from the movie!

Ring ring tone

Come witness the official Guinness World Record Attempt for the world's largest functioning cellphone.

It all happens on Thursday 20 September, 16h00. And we need witnesses.

Where? The MTN Sciencentre, Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Cape Town, South Africa, Africa. If anyone asks, we can give you the Google Earth coordinates. Otherwise, just know that we are entrance 5, near Woolworths.

There will be a lucky draw for a normal-sized Ericsson cellphone as well.

RSVP: Lesley Gikas - lesley@refreshpr.co.za / 021 889 8375

99 things to do

We are number 23 on the list of 99 things to do in Cape Town that cost under R100.

In fact, we're sandwiched between precious metals (the Gold of Africa museum) and wine (tastings at the Durbanville winery) so we have pretty good neighbours, too!

Really, the MTN Sciencentre should congratulate Cape Town Info on their excellent taste. And invite them to all the cool things we're going to be doing in September as part of our African Origins Month celebration. This is the kind of reputation we like to live up to (and you're not supposed to finish a sentence with a dangling participle, even in a blog, so we will add this in parentheses).

Sasol Techno X

The crew from the MTN Sciencentre won second prize for their exhibition at Sasol Techno X up on the highveld.

Science circus might be a better word, as everything took place in a large (and rather chilly) tent.

Charles Phillips, Brenda Zondeki, Fikiswa Majola and Shahied van Nelson were the 'performers' in the 'circus tent' in Boiketlong, Sasolburg, from 13 - 17 August 2007 .

And as you can see from the picture, students enjoyed getting to grips with science.

I See Science

How does a kid take a photograph when he (or she) has never held a camera before and doesn't even know which button to press - or that the buttons are there to be pressed?

And then how do you persuade the youngster to take a photograph of science?

Ask Detlef Basel, the 72-year-old stalwart of the MTN Sciencentre. By Thursday, this avid photographer will have introduced 200 children from Khayelitsha, Langa and Delft to the wonders of digital photography - with a quick sidetrip to Paarl on Wednesday to cause a few chemical reactions with colleague Eloise Nefdt.

Marine BioSciences Month

You know that it's a successful trip when it ends with 'let's go back!'

That was the response from five-year-old Benjamin Scott Wittenberg when George the bus driver brought us back to Cape Town from Hermanus.

Ben sat on Gearing's Point, where this photo was taken of kayakers going out to explore the whales' world, and enjoyed seeing the whales duck upside down and wave their tail flukes in the air (known as sailing, apparently).

On return to the MTN Sciencentre, he said, ''I want to go back to Hermanus!''

Maybe next year, young Ben. Marine BioSciences Month is celebrated every year. Or come to our talk with Shark Spotter Yvonne Kamp on Wednesday.

Young Scientists on SAfm

Akhona Mbele and Busisile Zilwa (see photo) both grade 11 students from the Cape
Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology, are appearing on Morning Talkback with Ashraf Garda on SAfm radio on Monday, August 20. They will share the airwaves with Ivan James, an Expo vice-chairperson in the Cape.

The two students were among the hundreds of competitors who flooded into the MTN Sciencentre last week for the Eskom Expo For Young Scientists.

It was the first time that the MTN Sciencentre hosted the Expo, which has been running for a quarter of a century in South Africa.

Akhona and Busisile were happy with their bronze medals after competing for the first time.

Busisile, who lives in Khayelitsha outside of school term, when he stays in the Academy's boarding house, said the project focused on how to help the municipality supply clean water, as cheaply as possible, to densely-populated and impoverished townships.

Akhona, who hails from Beaufort West in the central Karoo, where he lives with his pensioner mother and granny, said they utilised river water, bore holes and underground aquifers, and concentrated on ways to clean the water up to human standards.

Charl Schoeman, their biology teacher, said it was the four-year-old school's first time at the Expo. Schoeman was delighted that three of his four teams received bronze medals.

Jani de Bruin of the MTN Sciencentre, which hosted the Cape Town leg of the Expo for the first time, paid tribute to Engen for allowing visitors free access during the two days of the competition, and said she looked forward to a repeat performance next year.

Cape Town Expo organiser Olga Peel from the Bishops (Diocesan College) biology department in Rondebosch said 435 projects by nearly 650 pupils across the Cape peninsula competed for silver, bronze and gold medals.

In the past week, in addition to the Cape Town competition, thousands of students participated in the Bloemfontein, Ladysmith, Nelspruit, Bethlehem, Welkom, Secunda and Port Elizabeth competitions.

And this week there will be Expo for Young Scientist competitions in Ixopo in KwaZulu Natal on Tuesday (August 21), in Kimberley on Wednesday, in Upington in the Northern Cape on Thursday and in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape on Thursday and Friday.

More Expos follow in Mmabatho in the Northwest, the University of the North-West in Phalaborwa, in Tzaneen and in Polokwane.

Whale watching

A full bus load of 60 people went with Busi Maqubela, Maryka Pace and Jani de Bruin from MTN Sciencentre on Saturday, August 18.

Their destination: the pretty coastal town of Hermanus. First stop: the Whale Show, with sculptor/painter and environmentalist Noel Ashton.

Pre-schoolers Lusanda Khalala from Gugulethu, Thando Dube from Langa and Nelisiwe Dunge from Bellville were among the very youngest of the visitors who were impressed by Noel's impassioned call for people to halt whaling.

Noel also lined up a special guest visitor: Zolani Baleni, the whale crier, who 'called' the whales by blowing on his horn made from dried kelp.

Next stop: the look-out point over the Old Harbour. After that, the group split up with their picnic baskets and checked out a spectacular site: three southern right whales breaching simultaneously. Breaching is when the whales leap out of the water - no mean feat when you weigh 45 tons!

Expo For Young Scientists

It was second time lucky for Sive Nunu and Lungelwa Tyeda (see photo) at the 25th annual Eskom Expo at the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town in 2007.

The grade 11 students from Hlanganiso high school have entered the annual Expo for Young Scientists before. But this time, the Khayelitsha students were awarded gold medals for their project on the causes of electrical fires in informal settlements.

The gold medal means they now compete in the nationals in Pretoria during the September school holidays.

Alex Erlank and Shaun Irwin of Westerford High School in Rondebosch also won their first gold on a second effort, this time after creating a remote-controlled Mars-style rover.

South Africa's best boffins then go on to compete internationally.

Another of the 20 gold medalists from Cape Town will be an old hand at the national competition. Abigail Gottlieb, a grade ten student at Herzlia School, received her third gold medal for an intensive project investigating any links between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer in 180 post-menopausal women.

Two students aware of consumer rights and recent controversies over adulterated food, Naadhirah Mukadam and Sameera Mohamed of Pinelands High, won gold medals after testing fizzy tablets to see if they really contained vitamin C as promised.

Stephanus Spammer of Wynberg Boys High won a gold medal for generating electricity for road signs from the passing traffic.

Expo vice-chairperson Sharon Sickler said all 22 gold medal project contestants will meet on Friday August 24 at Bishops Diocesan School in Rondebosch for a mandatory upgrading session prior to the nationals.