Lynthia Paul and National Science Week 2008

This is Dr Lynthia Paul, a microbiologist and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town - a long way from the little girl in the tiny copper mining town of Nababeep in the remote Namakwaland who dreamed of being a nurse!

Lynthia was a star of National Science Week 2008 - on the Friday she spoke about following your science dream to the students from many high schools who assembled at the Cape Academy of Science for the official launch; on the Tuesday she spoke to Cobus Bester, the presenter of the morning Afrikaans current affairs programme Monitor on Radio Sonder Grense, on Thursday she participated in a talk show on the women's programme Otherwise on English-language SAfm radio with presenter Nancy Richards and guests Tsungai Jongwe (who herself spoke to students from Milnerton and Thandokhulu high schools on Friday) and our own chemical engineer Fikiswa Majola.

And on Thursday evening, Lynthia was in the audience at the Ericsson auditorium at the MTN Sciencentre with some friends to watch and listen as renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes demolished the long-lasting urban legend about lactic acid pooling in athletes' muscles and causing fatigue. (It's the brain, dummies, that makes the difference!)

Thanks to Lynthia for being such a good role model and talking about how she really battled to adapt to her first year at Stellenbosch University - both socially and academically - and how once she discovered science, she never, ever regretted it.

Students and National Science Week

An article about the launch on National Science Week appeared in Independent Newspapers, available online at http://www.iol.co.za:80/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=2934&art_id=iol1210858605164S522

Here it is below, with a few pictures.

SA tackles science basics

May 15 2008 at 03:42PM

Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore, speaking at the opening of National Science Week on Friday May 9 in the Western Cape, announced a renewed focus on getting the basics of mathematics and science right at primary school level.

Dugmore, who spoke to teachers at the end of the launch ceremonies at the Cape Academy of Science, Mathematics and Technology in Tokai, beneath Table Mountain, said ''the numeracy rates are a major concern in grade 6. We need to strengthen what we do in our primary schools.''

On May 22, for the first time, the province will honour those primary schools which have made the greatest improvement in maths and science, he told the assembled teachers.



Also attending were Western Cape science communicators such as Sivuyile Manxoyi and Isobel Bassett from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Observatory and Dr Gillian Arendse, Ryan Linden and Ambrose Yaga from iThemba particle physics laboratory in Faure.

''If we don't get this right, in mathematics and science, our country is going to lose its competitive edge,'' Dugmore warned the audience, which included Busisiwe Maqubela, Jani de Bruin, Fikiswa Majola, Phakamisa Kwinana, Edzon Robyn and Detlef Basel from the MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk in Cape Town.

Also present were National Youth Strategy science graduate volunteers Candice Arendse and Meshack Magatshavha, and National Research Foundation interns Samuel Motlhabane and Noluvuvo Maile, all from the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory, which monitors disturbing changes in the earth's protective magnetic belt.




Fortunately, many high school students (see above)attending the launch of National Science Week, which runs from May 10 to 17 with special events around the country, were already convinced of the value of science.



Southfield-based Monique Timmie, age 15, a grade 10 student at Heathfield High School, said ''I like physics, it's my best subject. You can go anywhere in the world with physics and South Africa needs more scientists.'' That's Monique on the righthand side of the photo above.



Kuils River-based student Spencer Horne, above, who studies and boards at the Cape Academy, spoke to the audience.

''Science is constantly evolving. There are daily discoveries. Science is stimulating,'' the teenager said.

Bersan Lesch, a speaker from the ''science and youth unit'' at the Department of Science and Technology in Pretoria, said over 250 000 science career booklets had been distributed and over 200 000 people were expected to participate in National Science Week.

Dr Lynthia Paul, a University of Cape Town microbiologist from Nababeep in Namaqualand, told the students ''sometimes there were people who told me my dreams were too big.

Don't let anyone tell you your dreams are too big. If you set your mind to it, it doesn't matter what your circumstances are.''

* South Africa's National Science Week runs until May 17th with lots of free things to do and try. The MTN Sciencentre in Canal Walk in Cape Town is throwing open its doors, with free entry, from 9 am to 6 pm on Saturday, May 17.

In addition to the standard favourites like spinning in the gyroscope, the hourly trip to the camera obscura to watch the ever-changing fantastic views of the Cape Town skyline, gross-out dissections of eyeballs, kidneys and fishguts at Lucky's Lab and the daily 2 pm blow-it-up chemistry show with the fabulous Fikiswa Majola and the dashing Detlef Basel, there are quite a lot of additional activities.

Consider a free screening of the movie Bushman's Secret, featuring breathtaking footage of the Kalahari landscape, or hang out with the man who was nearly the next president of the USA, Al Gore, as he explains how we're cooking the planet in ''An Inconvenient Truth.''

Or attend ''Not too hot, not too cold,'' a workshop which is a praise poem by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to the unique qualities of our home planet.

Or outsmart Lente Mare of Chess for Change with chessboard war, or make your own volcano out of kitchen cupboard ingredients such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring.

If you prefer something more active, head off on the hike of nearby Intaka Island wetland.

National Science Week 2008 on YouTube

Busi Maqubela on SAfm

Busi Maqubela joined the MTN sciencentre at the very beginning in 2000 as a callow University of the Western Cape graduate in biochemistry and microbiology, having survived boarding schools in Bloemfontein in the Free State and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, courtesy of a well-connected relative.

She's since grown into an incredibly efficient floors and programmes manager of the MTN Sciencentre, and is busy putting the next generation of family members through high school in her turn.

But can she cope with an interview? Efforts to tape her for YouTube dissolved in laughter. So we're trying again. Busi will appear live on the English-language SAfm radio station, on the current affairs programm Saturday PM, which airs between 8 and 9 pm, to talk about the first day of national science week. Listen out for her at about 8:20 pm, on May 10.

She went to boarding school in Bloemfontein in the Free State and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, but says it was nothing like the stories in Johan van der Ruit's Michaelhouse novel Spud. The MTN Sciencentre staff - including education manager Rhyme Setshedi, Fikiswa Majola, Detlef Basel, Anwar Goolam and Ryan Bruton - recently returned from Grahamstown after putting on a slew of exhibitions and workshops and shows at SciFest 2008.

Stukkend about National Science Week!

National Science Week kicks off from Saturday May 10 to 17th with lots of free things to do and try.

The MTN Sciencentre here in the Canal Walk shopopolis in Cape Town is throwing open its doors, with free entry all this weekend, from 9 in the morning until 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday. And the offer gets repeated on the following Saturday, May 17 as well.

In addition to the standard favourites like spinning in the gyroscope, the hourly trip to the camera obscura to watch the ever-changing fantastic views of the Cape Town skyline, gross-out dissections of eyeballs, kidneys and fishguts at Lucky's Lab and the daily 2 pm blow-it-up chemistry show with the fabulous Fikiswa Majola (picture above) and the dashing Detlef Basel, there are quite a lot of additional activities.

Consider a free screening of the movie Bushman's Secret, featuring breathtaking footage of the Kalahari landscape, or hang out with the man who was nearly the next president of the USA, Al Gore, as he explains how we're cooking the planet in ''An Inconvenient Truth.''

Or attend ''Not too hot, not too cold,'' a workshop which is a praise poem by Laurie Bowell and company from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to the unique qualities of our home planet.

Or outsmart Lente Mare of Chess for Change with chessboard war, or make your own volcano out of kitchen cupboard ingredients such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring. If you prefer something more active, head off on the hike of nearby Intaka Island wetland.

Late-risers can come in at noon to find out how to use your cellphone to operate a robot with Neels van der Westhuizen from FischerTechnik toys and find what's really inside the Nintendo Wii remote, or compete in the traditional marabara and mankala board games or polish up your paparazzi skills at the digital camera workshop.

Later in the week, there are talks:

* MTN Sciencentre founder Mike Bruton, now with MTE studios, on the funny side of science
* 23-year-old Stellenbosch biochemist Jennifer de Beyer, who's just won a scholarship to study at Oxford University in the UK
* young University of Cape Town microbiologist Tsungai Jongwe, who's sifting through indigenous plants in search of fresh medicines against drug-resistant tuberculosis
* renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes, who says new research indicates that belief in yourself may control whether you come in first, second - or last.

* Local science teachers mark the beginning of national science week with physics researcher Dr Zinhle Buthelezi at a brunch on May 10 at South Africa's only particle physics accelerator, the massive iThemba Laboratories complex off the N2 freeway near the Stellenbosch turnoff. But kids and their parents can come to iThemba's family day next weekend (17th) to celebrate the tail end of the week-long celebration of discovery. Mayhem is expected as the ebullient Steve Sherman of Living Maths joins Libertas choir tenor/physicist Gillian Arendse to present "Mal about Maths & Stukkend for Science". Cost is only R5, but booking is required because of super-strict safety regulations at iThemba. Deal with Ambrose Yaga at 021 843 1000 or 073 7273141.

* There's so much iron in the core of the planet that the Earth is a giant magnet. And that's a good thing for us. Without the magnetic field, we would get crisped by the solar wind. But there are troubling signs of changes in the planet's magnetosphere, which is why scientists at the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory are keeping a close eye on what's happening in this invisible but powerful force. Elisa Fraser of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory in the Western Cape is also a participant in national science week on 028 312 1196.

* SciFest Africa, which just hosted the MTN Sciencentre at the national science festival in Grahamstown last month, is on the road to Lusikisiki this week for national science week, where Rhodes University students Dube Nyoni, Zandile Makina and James Aitchison will be explaining the biotechnology of umqombothi (traditional sorghum beer) and amarhewu, the popular soured milk drink. For more on national science week in the Eastern Cape, speak to Asanda at SciFest Africa on 046 603 1155 .

So wherever you are, get thinking, get doing. It's national science week, and it only comes once a year!

Science op die Vlaktes

The 21st of January is many things to many people. In the USA, it's Martin Luther King Junior day, in honour of the assassinated civil rights leader.

Elsewhere, it's International Spicy Food Day and the good residents of the United Kingdom are cheering themselves up (despite their miserable weather and crowded conditions) by making it National Fetish Day.

Here at the MTN Sciencentre, January 21 was the day we were visited by the students from four Cape Flats schools, courtesy of sponsorship from the Department of Science and Technology. Three of the schools came from Manenberg: Rio Grande primary school from Pecos Road; Manenberg primary school, on the corner of Kei and Kasouga roads and Downville primary school, on Tagus road in Manenberg.



But first up were the students from the Centre for Science and Technology (COSAT, online at http://www.cosat.wcape.school.za) in Khayelitsha/Mitchell's Plain. That's one of the COSAT students, Thembisa Qwabe, pictured above. There is a moving story behind that big grin.

Thembisa was brutally assaulted by two armed robbers who broke into the shack in which she was living nearly two years ago. Her father was away in the Eastern Cape at the time and she was at the time a Grade 11 learner at COSAT, fending for herself in one of the most dangerous areas in Khayelitsha.

The school says ''the attack itself and the indignities and fears that she subsequently had to endure almost broke her. But then, with a degree of determination and maturity quite extraordinary in one so young, Thembisa decided that she would not allow herself to become yet another helpless victim. She would not allow her dreams for the future to be compromised.''

Late in 2007 year, Thembisa (who has visited the MTN Sciencentre) matriculated at COSAT with an A-aggregate and distinctions in Biology, Maths and Xhosa. She attained Bs in Science and English. The picture above shows Thembisa leaving her home, armed with a suitcase and bedding, on one of the most exciting and fulfilling days of her young life. Her dream had finally come true. SHE WAS ON HER WAY TO STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY TO BEGIN HER NEW CAREER AS A MEDICAL STUDENT.

Now if that doesn't explain what motivates the staff at schools like COSAT and the team at the MTN Sciencentre, there are no words available!

Thursday's children

On the last day of the first month of the new year, we will be inundated by the grade ten and eleven students from Lückhoff High in Ida's Valley, a suburb of nearby Stellenbosch.

''Especially the grade tens in the subject physical science need a firsthand approach to the subject - to feel something, see something, experience a process - so it becomes real to them,'' said Mrs Cheryl King, the life sciences teacher at Lückhoff.

The 60 or so students will be accompanied by physical science teacher Mrs Georgina Apples, and it's hoped that the visit to the MTN Sciencentre will spark their curiosity about the astonishing world we live in.

''At the moment we do moderately, we're not where we want them to be,'' said Mrs King. ''They have the ability to do much better - especially in science subjects. A lack of good facilities is an issue. We have qualified teachers. The surroundings play quite a great role in their lack of interest. They're not stimulated maybe enough at home.''

Lückhoff was the first Afrikaans-language high school for so-called coloured people in the Boland, said Stellenbosch University rector Russell Botman. In fact, the desire for education was so strong that Lückhoff was the third school to be built in the entire Boland region.

Pupils came to the school from as far away as neighbouring countries such as what was then South-West Africa (now Namibia). Children from remote regions lived with local families, guided by the motto “Education is Light”.

The school was deliberately shut down in 1964 by the education department of the National Party in terms of the Group Areas Act, which threw out the so-called bruin mense in favour of the white minority.

Barely three months before writing their finals, the 1964 matric students were unceremoniously evicted from the building and forcefully relocated — along with students from various church schools — to a cramped, barracks-like building in the ''coloureds-only'' township of Ida’s Valley, where the school remains today.

Ida's Valley was founded in 1920 on the northeast side of Stellenbosch, when many of the first residents farmed vegetables and fruit such as strawberries. Today it is a low-income to working-class suburb of the university town, and you can find many of its residents singing their hearts out in the famous Libertas choir.

According to an article by Hazel Friedman in The Teacher, for more than 25 years educator and activist Pat William, the current headmaster of Lückhoff, has watched with despair how the engine of post-apartheid change has moved in fits and starts.

Together with community stalwarts like Moegamat Kara and Isgak Pool, Williams has embarked on an epic project to rewrite the history of Stellenbosch and to document the trajectory of cultural dispossession experienced by the communities of Ida’s Valley and neighbouring Cloeteville. This, he hopes, will instil in his students a sense of pride in their heritage, helping to heal the wounds of a fractured history.

Let us hope that the visit to the MTN Sciencentre can form part of this process.