Our dedicated science educators Detlef Basel and Eloise Nefdt are clocking up the mileage on the bright yellow mobile science lab from the MTN Sciencentre. Here's a look at their schedule this week, covering the southern Cape.
On Monday October 8, Eloise and Detlef raced off to English-language Percy Mdala Secondary School overlooking the picturesque Knysna Lagoon. Staff at this school say that one of their biggest challenges is persuading learners to go home in the afternoon! (More on this school and its international partnerships at www.bbc.co.uk/nisa)
Tuesday, Detlef and Eloise motored down to Afrikaans-speaking Pacaltsdorp Secondary School, in tiny but historic Pacaltsdorp in the Karoo, south of the town of George in the southern reaches of the Cape, on the Garden Route.
Wednesday, Eloise and Detlef drove to the 1300 learners at the English-curriculum Imizamo Yethu high school, which is NOT in the informal settlement of the same name in Hout Bay, although it is true that both mean 'through our mutual struggle' or 'our endeavours.' This one is in George, and was pushed for by the local community in the 1980s when they had no high school at all, hence the name.
Thursday, Detlef and Eloise follow the roads inland to Groot Brak Rivier secondary school in the Klein Karoo, in Kannaland to be precise, where fewer than twenty percent of residents have completed high school, according to the 2001 census.
Friday, Eloise and Detlef head off through the Outeniqua mountains, this time to the Afrikaans-speaking Sao Bras Secondary School in the sub-economic suburb of Kwanonqaba in Mosselbaai. And for those who are wondering, the bay was called Aguada de Sao Bras (watering place of St Blaize) back in 1488 by the Catholic Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz, while searching for a sea route to Asia. It was a Dutch navigator Paulus van Caerden who gave Mossel Bay its current name in 1601, for the abundant mussels that line the shores.
But these are science mussels (I mean, muscles) that these two are harvesting!
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