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