West Coast fossil park: before the dig site

Kids swarmed off the bus and into the playground at the West Coast fossil park after a chilly early morning bus ride from the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town.



Kids met Mr Skinny in the museum. Of course, as our guide Heidi pointed out, if the body is a record of earth's history, mankind would only be a hair on top of the head. This is Yusuf Bharoochi with Amir Hoffman, 6, who divides his time between Tamboerskloof and Mitchell's Plain, and is in Grade R at Tamboerskloof primary.



Heidi Duncan was the volunteer who took us back in time - but not all the way back to the dinosaurs; that bit was washed out to sea long ago. (Which might have been easier because the sea covered the town of Langebaan Lagoon and the M7 freeway and in fact much of the old phosphate mine site we were standing on, at various points in Africa's history). Still, a couple of million years ago is good going!



The kids enjoyed hanging out with Mr Skinny prior to piling back into the bus for the trip down to the dig sites, which have been left open - complete with the lattice of square marking the bones sticking up out of the old riverbed - with a wooden boardwalk around anda greenhouse-style canopy around.



This last picture is Yusuf Bharoochi, 8, of Grassy Park. He's a grade 1 student at Vista Nova school in Rondebosch.

Kaylyn at ExperiLab

Kids enjoy going into the Experilab shop and trying out the van der Graaf generator -this is Kaylyn, whose dad posted the pic online. The science centre is swamped with happy kids this winter school break here in wet Cape Town. And they're getting ready for the big sleepover on Wednesday 9th, to celebrate Nandi's birthday.

Sea-faring science

The venerable University of Virginia in the eastern USA is teaching future American science teachers - and broadening their educational horizons - in the 2008 Semester at Sea Course, which takes place in the northern hemisphere's fall - probably a good time to come to dock at places like Walvis Bay in Namibia and Cape Town, South Africa. That's their route, above, on what is roughly a 100 day voyage.

While conducting experiments and learning how to make balloon-powered cars and fan belts, there's also a section where they find out how museums teach science. First stop: us, the MTN Sciencentre, in Cape Town!

Other stops include the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre in Chennai, India; Penang science centre in Malaysia, classrooms in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and the Hong Kong Science Museum and the Shanghai aquarium, both in China.

Sounds fabulous, doesn't it? Semester at Sea has been running for nearly half a century - see http://www.semesteratsea.org




Ed Sobey, above, who will be running the course, specialises in Education and Environmental Sciences



Professor Sobey is president of the Northwest Invention Center (www.invention-center.com) to serve schools and museums with hands-on programs and exhibits, and to help inventors. and senior director of the Asian Institute for Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (www.asiainvents.com).



In these roles he develops creative learning programs and museum exhibits, and writes books on technology, inventing, and science. His academic background is diverse: first physics and math, followed by oceanography.



In addition to his academic work in peer-reviewed journals, 100 magazine articles and 21 books (some of which we show here) not to mention directing museums for nearly twenty years, Ed Sobey has also hosted tv shows such as The Idea Factory and Blow The Roof Off and received many awards for his work in community education.



Ed served as the first director of the USA's Inventors Hall of Fame and founded the American Toy Hall of Fame. Quite a cool guy, we look forward to welcoming him!

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.

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!

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.