Big bangs wow learners for National Science Week

A group of gung-ho Rhodes Chemistry students celebrated National Science Week (1-6 August) by travelling to a number of Eastern Cape schools with their edutaining demonstration A Pollutant’s Tale.

On Friday morning, Grade 9, 10 and 11 learners at Ntsika Senior Secondary School were treated to an exciting morning of science, punctuated by big bangs and some surprises. The presentation was one of many National Science Week activities initiated by the Department of Science and Technology, aimed at promoting science awareness among learners.

Chemistry lecturer Ms Joyce Sewry introduced the show, reminding the learners of how “everything you use every day is because of science”. The year 2011 is also the International Year of Chemistry so the Rhodes group, headed by Ms Sewry, used some of the teaching materials developed by Bristol University to reach out to Eastern Cape schools.

Funded by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (Saasta) and the Department of Science and Technology, A Pollutant’s Tale was shown at five other schools in the province; rural schools in Peddie and Keiskammahoek as well as Port Alfred and Cradock, ending with a show in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

Donning their orange lab coats, Godfred Darko, Sunday Ogunlaja, Kehinde Awokoya and Nicole D’Souza mixed a series of dangerous-looking chemicals to produce a series of startling experiments, keeping the learners wide awake and interested in science. The first of these was liquid nitrogen, which was used to freeze and shatter a rubber tube, a flower and a banana. Boosted by the charisma and enthusiasm of the students, the experiments were cleverly intertwined with an informal lesson on the gases found in the earth’s atmosphere which cause pollution. Some of the learners answered questions and were rewarded with a prize.

Another one of the senses was harnessed when D’Souza passed round cardboard strips dipped in liquids of various smells. The learners had a great time identifying these, which included vanilla, lemon and the unwelcome smell of the glandular secretions of a civet cat! Incomplete combustion, which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, was demonstrated by Ogunlaja who set alight a large plastic bottle (which had been washed out with alcohol), producing a raging ball of blue flame.

The serious message of climate change was brought in towards the end of the demonstration, with a simple analogy of a granny sitting at a heater, symbolising the sun and the earth. The solution isn’t to move closer to the heater but to create a thicker, better ‘blanket’ by protecting the earth’s atmosphere. Projecting images of the peak of Kilimanjaro and a severely diminished Lake Chad onto the wall, it was brought home that we can all do something to prevent global warming by making some informed lifestyle changes.

Among the Centre for Social Development’s (CSD) highlights of the week was the performance of a puppet show that enthralled many children keen to follow the main character, Thandi on her journey to discover how our planet works. The children also had an opportunity to play with several interactive educational stations. Ms Vera Adams, the director of the CSD, said: “The CSD is the only stakeholder in the Eastern Cape that provided activities addressing the Early Foundation phase age group (five to nine years). Although the emphasis was on science, it also provided an opportunity for children from very diverse backgrounds to come together and just play and explore.”

The shows for the first three days were staged at St Mary’s Development and Care Centre, after which it travelled around Grahamstown to Victoria Primary and Ntaba Maria Primary School.  Several pre-schools in the vicinity travelled to these venues to watch the show and take part in the activities. “Now that the puppet show has been developed we will be able to do more of these shows at all the crèches and pre-schools that we work in,” said Ms Adams.

Story and picture by Anna-Karien Otto

Chemistry-Teachers Community Engagement

In May this year News24.com reported that “more than 1 700 South African science teachers are not qualified to teach the subject” and in June of this year, it was reported in Timeslive.co.za that “As many as 9, 229 out of the province’s 34 968 science teachers currently lack formal qualifications to teach science subjects,”. The first article referred to Physical Science teachers in the FET phase, whereas the second article included all primary and secondary school teachers. Both of these statistics are very worrying in a country where there is a dire shortage of skills.
At Rhodes the Chemistry and Education Departments have collaborated over the years to do a little towards improving the situation of underqualified science teachers. In one week two workshops were run for teachers in different situations.

The first workshop was organised by these Departments, but it was presented by Ms Rene Fourie from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Cape Town. The topic was “Mining and Mineral Resources”, a topic new to the curriculum. Each school represented at the workshop received a resource pack containing a handbook, posters and a DVD on the topic. Amongst the 23 people present were representatives from the Graaff-Reinet and Grahamstown District Offices of the EC Department of Education. Thus, resource packs will be distributed to schools as far afield as Graaff-Reinet and Somerset East. Dr Ngcoza and Mrs Sewry made use of the occasion to reward local teachers who had attended workshops in the Science teachers Workshop programme during 2009. Equipment to do titrations (retort stand, clamp, burette, pipette and 3 conical flasks) were handed to teachers from 4 schools – Nathaniel Nyaluza, Ntsika, TEM Mrwetyana and Khutliso Daniels.
In the second workshop, 28 teachers studying on the ACE (SM) (Advanced Certificate in Education (Science Method)) spent a full morning in the Chemistry laboratory. They were given a rendition of “A Pollutant’s Tale” (a popular lecture-demonstration about the gases in the atmosphere) and then they spent the rest of the morning doing titrations. The whole morning was run by postgraduate students in the Department of Chemistry. It was touching to learn that Ms Vuyi Makabe, a Chemistry MSc student was helping the teacher who had taught her Life Sciences at Nombulelo.

In the words of Dr Ngcoza, “The ACE science students really enjoyed all the activities and there is no doubt that today's experience will remain indelible in their minds. Besides enjoyment, they learnt a lot of scientific concepts and skills. I hope they will in turn be able to inspire their learners who are our future scientists. Investing in them is not negotiable.”
A further development from this workshop is that the students have been invited to do “A Pollutant’s Tale” for three schools in Peddie.

All this Community Engagement by the students of the Chemistry Department must hopefully do a little to improve Science Education at school.

A Pollutant's Tale

In October 4 postgraduate students and Mrs Joyce Sewry went to Komga Junior School in Komga where they did "A Pollutant's Tale" to all 220 learners in the school hall.

After that set up the hall was set up for 2 hands-on experiments for the learners. The experiments were making slime, and finding the unknown concentration of hydrochloric acid by measuring  the time it takes for a piece of magnesium ribbon to dissolve. Approximately 100 grade 5 - 7 learners took part in the hands-on experiments.Comments from the learners: “Science is fun and interesting, one of the best subjects”“Science is very good for you because it tells you about nature that is why I like science” When the teachers were asked about the effects of “A Pollutant’s Tale” on the promoting positive attitudes towards science, they said:“Excellent. The whole demonstration was excellent. It keep us continually in suspense. If Science lessons were presented in a similar manner learners will definitely be hooked on science”“Any science experiments seen by our pupils is great. Junior school chdn maybe need simpler explanations. It was very positive judging from the reactions of the chdn! Hectic!”

Khanya Maths and Science Club

2010 Activities

This year the annual outing was to the Addo Reptile and Raptor Centre near Addo. Our thanks must go to Rhode Trip who sponsored one bus for transport and to the Young Royal Society for sponsoring the entrance fee.

The annual prize-giving saw learners receiving science book prizes kindly sponsored by Grahamstown Round Table, and the senior learners also got t-shirts donated by Mr Mark Rainier of Massey University, New Zealand.

2009 Activities

The Khanya Maths and Science Club has completed its 10th year . At the beginning of 2009 we turned away learners when our numbers reached 120, but this soon dropped to a more manageable size. The grade 9-12 learners tried to improve their Maths knowledge as much as possible, while the grade 7’s and 8’d did syllabus-related Maths as well as some fun Science. These included a Chemistry lecture/demonstration, fun with magnets, working with the Environmental Science Department, learning about birds, etc.

The Rhodes University Career Counsellor, Mr Kietzmann, spoke to the grade 9 learners about subject choice and to the matrics about career choices.

All members of the Club received tickets to shows at Scifest Africa - thanks to Scifest Africa for sponsoring the tickets.
Grade 9 and 10 learners spent an afternoon at Wylie’s dairy where they learnt about the dairy industry and got to feed some calves. A highlight was a trip to Bayworld in Port Elizabeth where the members watched a seal and penguin show, and were given a behind-the-scenes talk on reptiles and a guided tour of the marine hall in the Museum.

The last meeting of the Khanya Maths and Science Club was the annual prize-giving, held at the Albany Museum. 23 learners were awarded book prizes, and the rest received merit or attendance certificates. Mrs Joyce Sewry thanked Ms Marijke Lewis for her support over the past 10 years and wished her well as she retires from the Albany Museum. Thanks were also extended to Albany Museum staff, Prof Nyokong, Grahamstown Round Table and all volunteers who gave of their time on Saturday mornings to help run the Club.

Chemistry Outreach

Sarah Abel gave 5 presentations of “A Pollutant’s Tale” at an Albany Museum Focus Week and then took the show to the Bedford Town Hall. This was attended by approx. 400 learners.

Service-Learning

The Chemistry Department has extended its Community Engagement to include Service- learning in its second-year curriculum. The second-year Organic Chemistry practical course includes a practical where the students make dyes of different colours. This practical now extends over 2 weeks. In the first week, the second-year students learn about the dyes and make the dyes, then in the second practical, matric learners from two schools, TEM Mrwetyana and Khutliso Daniels, joined the students in the laboratory, and were taught how to make the dyes and dyed t-shirts from themselves.

The learners found it a great experience to be in a university laboratory and asked when they could come again. The students engaged more with the subject, since they had to teach the learners, and said that they had gained a lot from the experience.
Schools Practicals.

For the past few years, Graeme College and Victoria Girls’ High School have brought their Grade 12 classes for two sessions in the Chemistry laboratory. The first is a practical on acid-base titrations and the second a practical on identification of organic functional groups. In 2009 this programme has been extended to include workshops for learners from Hoe?rskool PJ Olivier, Nombulelo Senior Secondary school as well as the GADRA Matric School and Kingswood College. This exercise is very useful in that it gives the learners an opportunity to do individual practical work as well as ask questions about studying at University. The learners all enjoy the experience.

Teaching the teachers

2008 is a watershed year for secondary school education in South Africa as soon the first matric class to write the NCS (New Curriculum statement) will begin their final examinations. Unfortunately, there is a general perception that teachers in many disciplines have struggled to adapt to the new curriculum. In response to this perceived problem, the South African Chemical Institute (SACI) in conjunction with the The Marang Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at Wits University has set aside funding for selected projects geared to provide support training for science teachers specifically in Chemistry. The project proposal submitted by Dr Ken Ngcoza of the Rhodes Education Department and Mrs Joyce Sewry of the Rhodes’ Department of Chemistry was subsequently well funded by SACI, and the Marang Centre and has enabled Physical Science teachers from about 15 schools in the Grahamstown district, from afar afield as Alexandria and Port Alfred, as well as the public schools in Grahamstown to attend weekly workshops in the Department of Chemistry. The content of the workshops, involving a mix of theory and practical work, was initially determined by the teachers. Once the teacher’s needs were established Mrs Joyce Sewry and her team of committed Chemistry post-graduate students have provided the teaching input using the facilities and resources available in the Department of Chemistry.

Teacher attendance has been excellent and this has been attributed to the ongoing commitment to the success of this project from Mrs Sewry and the Chemistry post-graduate students and co-partners Mr Reuben Maselwa and Mr Leon Goosen of the Grahamstown District Education office and Dr Ken Ngcoza. “I was prepared to go ahead with the project, because all three partners share our Department’s passion for Science Education” said Mrs Sewry. After one of the workshops, Dr Ngcoza commented: “Each day I come to these empowering workshops, not only in terms of content knowledge, but social and cultural cross-pollination, my spirit is revived and lifted. It is such a wonderful learning space for everybody and I'm particularly impressed with the level of commitment shown by the teachers.”

Khanya Maths and Science Club

Established in 2000, this club is co-ordinated and run by Mrs Joyce Sewry, with help from the staff and postgraduate students of the Chemistry Department. The aim of the Club is to engender a love of Maths and Science amongst its members. The Club meets every Saturday morning from 09h00-11h00 at the Albany Museum, and lessons and workshops are presented by scientists and Chemistry students in an accessible and easy to understand manner.

Recruitment is done by staff of the Albany Museum, who invite primary schools to send two Grade 7 learners each. However, club members range from grades 6 to 12. The word is out in the community that the Club is not only fun, but helps learners with syllabus-related work. At the beginning of 2008 numbers were capped at 120. By May the numbers had decreased to a more manageable 50 learners. These learners are divided into three groups, grades 7-8, 9-10 ,and grades 11-12. The younger group is taught curriculum-based Maths and does “fun Science”, ranging from talks on a robotic dog to hands-on electricity workshops. The older group concentrates mainly on syllabus-related Maths. All learners spend two sessions in the computer laboratories of the Department of Information systems, where they are taught how to use a mouse, write a document and search the Internet for specific topics.

Schools Practicals

For the past few years, Graeme College and Victoria Girls’ High School have brought their Grade 12 classes for two sessions in the Chemistry laboratory. The first is a practical on acid-base titrations and the second a practical on identification of organic functional groups. In 2007 this programme has been extended to include workshops for learners from Hoe?rskool PJ Olivier, Nombulelo Senior Secondary school as well as the GADRA Matric School. This exercise is very useful in that it gives the learners an opportunity to do individual practical work as well as ask questions about studying at University. The learners all enjoy the experience tremendously.

Scifest Practicals

During the 2007 Sasol Scifest and the 2008 ScifestAfrica, the Department of Chemistry ran four sessions of titration practicals for secondary school learners. Each of these sessions was attended by 45 – 50 learners. These practicals fill a great need in the school curriculum, since very few schools have the equipment to run hands-on practicals such as these.

Second year presentations

During the second term the second year class of the Department of Chemistry have to do entrepeneurial projects in which they have to prepare a special product for marketing. At the end of the project period, each group has to “launch” its product at a special presentation to the Department.

In 2008 the Department of Chemistry invited four schools (Victoria GHS, Graeme College, Nombulelo Senior Secondary School and Mary Waters High School), two of which are former Model C schools and two previously disadvantaged schools. Three of the schools attended these presentations on how to set up a company which manufactures household cleaning agents. The learners enjoyed the afternoon and engaged with the students, asking questions at the end of each presentation.

See Community Outreach links : aims (http://137.222.73.1/aims/news.php)

chemlabs http://www.chemlabs.bris.ac.uk/outreach/chemnet/Chemnet_recent.html

wordpress http://ruactivate.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/chemsoc-magic/

http://www.ru.ac.za/latestnews/name,41550,en.html