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.