Science and cars

Everyone who knows Busi Maqubela, the MTN Sciencentre floor manager, knows that she's mal about cars. So we gave her the same driving quiz that appears in The Times newspaper.........

What do you drive? The Toyota Run X 160i sport, my sleek black beauty.

What does your odometer read? It's overdue for service. Around 31 800.

What do you like about your car? Comfort, leg room, acceleration and ohh ... leather seats of course, and speed (shhh!)

What would you like to drive? An Audi Q7.

What's the fastest you have ever driven? 195 km/hr.

What is your worst traffic fine? R400, Vanguard drive (bloody N7), recently, nogal.

Do you consider yourself a good driver? Very good and safe.

What was your first car? Toyota Tazz 130

What's the furthest you've driven without stopping? From Cape Town to Colchester, just outside of Port Elizabeth in Mpumi Koloni, the Eastern Cape.

What's playing on your CD shuttle? Bebe Winans' Up Close & Personal, Shirley Brown - Woman to Woman, The best of Peabo Bryson, Grammy Nominees 2007, Gentle Breeze 2 - the DJ compilation and the Dreamgirls movie soundtrack.

Have you ever done it on the back seat? Why would I answer that?

Do you worry about your contribution to global warming? Yes. I work at the science centre so I know climate change is very worrying.

Do you always buckle up? Always, otherwise there's that irritating sign on my dashboard.

Are you susceptible to road rage? Just a little. Not often.

If you were to customise your licence plate, what would it say? Qubs 22. Qubs is my nickname by friends, shortened from my surname. 22 is my date of birth and one of my lucky numbers, I believe.

Inspiration

Once upon a time, Rhyme Setshedi, the new head of education at the MTN Sciencentre, was a struggling first-year student at the University of Mafikeng.

Up in the NorthWest province, he was living in the residence in a dormitory room meant for one. Of course, students being students, the original occupant had sub-let part of the room for extra cash. A little crowded for a village boy from Montsana, outside Rustenburg, but Rhyme didn't have the cash to afford a private room. He was the first-born, the eldest of three boys, and he was also the first in his family to go to university.

A physics lecturer took pity on him, took him in, fed and housed him. That person was Dan Kgwadi, now a professor and rector at the university, and the two would sit around the table at night and discuss science.

''He really inspired me and I hope I inspire others in turn,'' Rhyme says. ''He made science simple. Science is my hobby. I don't honestly feel like I'm working. I feel like I'm playing with a bg toy, a gadget.''

Perhaps that sense of play, of curiosity, is also the influence of Rhyme's late father, Abson ''Master'' Setshedi. ''My father was not educated but he could fix things like cars and generators and lawnmowers. He was partially paralysed for the last decade of his life from a road accident and was in a wheelchair. We made a good team, I was his hands, before he passed away in 2002.''

And the ability to fix things has already come in useful. The van der Graaf generator used in the static electricity experiments at lucky's Lab was not being co-operative this week. So Rhyme peeked inside, ensured that the rubber belt was rubbing up against the cathode the way it was meant to, and was able to have a training session on Tuesday morning with facilitators Sam Moore, Nadine Samuel, Shahied van Nelson and Fikiswa Majola.

Now it's time for the next generation. At the family level, Rhyme's youngest brother is doing physics and science at matric level, while his middle brother has graduated with a commerce degree.

After seven years teaching at the University of Mafikeng, Rhyme has spent the last three years at the Cape University of Technology here in the Western Cape.

Rhyme teaches in a bridging programme, offering classes in physics and computer skills for matric graduates whose understanding of the subjects is not yet good enough for a first year of an engineering degree. ''I know the MTN Sciencentre because I have brought groups of students here,'' he points out.

He will continue to offer the classes, and stay in touch with the students via the internet, after joining the MTN Sciencentre team.

Rhyme and Reason

There's still lots to do before our hectic holiday programme hibernates after 15 January. Our upcoming science night sleepover and our weekend events were online on community diaries this week and mentioned by both Cape Talk and Kfm radio stations.

In addition, here's just a brief example of what we're doing on Monday:

Lente Maré from the programme Chess for Change runs her noon-time chess matches.

Our favourite science grandaddy, the 70-something Detlef Basel, comes back from leave and goes straight from the science show in the Ericsson auditorium at 1 pm to running a workshop on black and white photo printing at 2 pm.

Lucky's Lab experiments are on in the afternoon. Will it be electroplating (utilising a jolt of electric current to coat something smoothly with metal?) or static electricity? Either way, it should be electrifying! Find out with the MTN Sciencentre's new education head, Rhyme Shetshedi, a lecturer in radiation physics (x-rays to you and me) and computer skills at CAPUT (Cape Peninsula University of Technology).

You could say he's a rock-solid choice to replace Ruby Frans, as Rhyme did his master's degree at Wits University in Johannesburg in the field of materials science and in particular, diamonds! And it's good to have a seTswana speaker on our multilingual staff.

Weekends

Weekends ... a time to relax, sleep in, catch up on tasks....

OK, maybe not at the MTN Sciencentre. Not during the school holidays, at any rate.

There's walking tours of the indigenous bird sanctuary at nearby Intaka Island, the waterway where cormorants and darters flirt, squabble and make a comfy nest amid fynbos and the reeds which filter pollutants out of the water. Tick off sightings on your checklist. Although the science centre itself is well-known for making sure that unaccompanied kids are safe and secure while they have a blast, the Intaka Island excursion is somewhat different. Kids do need to be accompanied by an adult, as there are lots of tempting possibilities for making a splash!

But there are alternatives. Consider a free treasure hunt, suitable for all ages in the science centre itself. Or the Murray & Roberts construction firm, one of South Africa's largest industrial design and engineering firms, has sponsored a free building competition for teams of kids (no adults allowed). Or the daily science shows with pops, bangs, smoke and flames.

The South African company PenFlex is another supporter, allowing us to run a free drawing competition for kids of all ages using their Magic Colour markers to draw science pictures.

Kids aged 5 and older can attend a free turtle workshop in which they make their own paper turtle.

For kids aged eight and older, chemistry gets creative in workshops where you can make your own bouncing ball. Or get eco-conscious and recycle the aluminium from cool drink cans to make fridge magnets. Or build a better mousetrap-powered car, for only R10.

All this, in addition to all the usual activities such as Lucky's Lab and the new water exhibit. The idea is to send the kids back to school, when it opens in mid-January, completely exhausted!

Deadline for Super Silly Science Sleepover

Tomorrow (January 4) is the last date for kids aged 8 to 12 to register for the Super Silly Science Sleepover happening on January 11th at the MTN Sciencentre. The costs is 130 Rands. Only 120 kids can attend.

We're also offering special holiday deals - rocket scientist t-shirts and entry for only R65, or just the t-shirt for R50.

Life after high school

Volunteers like Fateeqah Manan and Jody Hopley, seen above wielding glue guns at a technojunk workshop, are the life and soul of the MTN Sciencentre.

We want more! So if anyone out there got their grade 12 marks at the end of December and hasn't yet organised a job or further studies, don't sink into depression.

Come to the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town's Canal Walk shopping mall, where we offer to train matric survivors (must be over the age of 16) as explainers, offering them valuable skills and networking opportunities.

Explainers get trained on the camera obscura with its panoramic view of Cape Town, strap people into the rotating gyroscope, make phone calls on the world's biggest cellphone and splash about with kids at the new water display.

Many of the volunteers - who get a transport allowance of up to 80 Rands a shift - go on to find fulltime work.

''It's fun to work at the science centre, you're not stressed. The staff is always cheerful, they're a nice team to work with. You pick up a lot of experience, your people skills improve, and working here helps if you want to deal with children,'' said 19-year-old Nathan Kayser of Eerste Rivier, who was manning the front desk this week. Kayser works at the MTN Sciencentre on weekends and holidays in between studying psychology at University of the Western Cape.

''We're short of Afrikaans-speaking explainers in particular at the moment, but everyone is welcome to come on the course because we get visitors from across South Africa, including Sotho and Zulu speaking regions,'' said floor manager Busi Maqubela. ''Some of our explainers come to us during their in-service training but we have a nice mix of people from all walks of life.''

The science centre, a popular tourist attraction, is open from 9 am to 6 pm most days. Fridays and Saturdays, however, the science centre is open from 9 in the morning until 9 in the evening, and that evening shift often needs people to work at the centre. Explainers must commit to a minimum of 32 hours - or four eight-hour shifts - every month. As Busi Maqubela points out, that's less time than the average teenager spends watching television.

''If matrics have studied science, that helps. But it's not mandatory. We need people to work in our café, help out with birthday parties and assist with events like our science sleepover on January 11, meant for kids aged eight to 12. Explainers have to be able to walk up to visitors with a smile on their face and show them how exhibits work and why it's fun and interesting.''

''Our first training dates in 2008 are set down for February 18 and 19, from 10 am until 3h30 pm,'' said science centre head Julie Cleverdon.

An application form is available at the front desk at the MTN Sciencentre on the upper level of the Canal Walk shopping Mall on the N1 freeway. Or people can email busi.maqubela@mtnsciencentre.org.za for a copy. Busi can be contacted on 083 276 9512.

Bush Radio blog

Our notice about our holiday workshops on making paddleboats from plastic bottles , and the new water exhibit at the MTN Sciencentre, has been put online at the new Bush Radio blog, at http://www.bushradionews.blogspot.com/.

Paddleboat workshops continue on January 7 and 14. The workshops are ideal for kids aged 8 and up. Contact 021 529 8100.