By Nwabisa Nkane
Rhodes University Statistics Department held a Grade 12 Mathematics winter school from 27 June to 1 July for 52 matric learners from across Makhanda. The learners came from secondary schools Kutliso Daniels, Ntsika Senior Secondary and Mary Waters. The winter school was part of a service-learning project in the department and involved staff and student participation.
The founder and inspiration behind the establishment of the winter school is Associate Professor Lizanne Raubeheimer who was supported by lecturer Amy Langston. The winter school served as a learner support intervention with the aim of assisting matric learners prepare for their final exams.
This service learning project was a huge success because lecturers, students and the learners from the different schools participated and completed the winter school programme together.
The learners gave feedback and these are some of the things they said:
“The winter school at Rhodes was a great experience for me and the teachers were patient with us.”
“The classes helped me a lot especially in geometry and the teachers were not so harsh with us they were cool and trustworthy.”
“The winter school was great in terms of helping us understand maths better and the tutors were amazing and were always willing to assist on the things you don't understand in class.”
“It was quite a great experience and the level of knowledge we gained was great. I'd love it if the programme happens once again as a revision session closer to the end of the year maybe after the trial examination to prepare us for the final exam.”
“It was an extremely fun experience. I learned a lot. But we felt inferior because of the competition that was raise amongst the school. Our school had a stigma. But I loved the energy of the tutors. They were amazing!”
“It was a fun and very informative winter school.”
It brought everyone involved much pleasure to hear such powerful and beautiful comments from the learners. Lecturer Langston noted, “from this feedback, we were very pleased to see that they enjoyed the week-long program and felt that it helped them prepare for their final examinations. Beyond this, our staff and students from the Department really enjoyed and benefited from the experience of further engaging with the community in which we all reside. We believe that the Winter School was a success.”
Winter School Reflection
By Amy Langston
This Winter School was aimed at preparing these students for their final examinations by revising some key topics and working through past exam papers. Although most of the topics had already been covered by their schools and only required revision, Finance, growth and decay, Probability, and Statistics had not yet been covered this year. For these topics, the learners were taught the content from the ground up and were provided with several examples to help them grasp the key concepts.
At the beginning of the week, the students were provided a pack containing a notebook, pens, and printed handouts of the past five year’s examination papers. Every day consisted of four sessions that ran for between an hour and an hour and a half each. Between these
sessions the learners where given a break for tea, lunch, or to simply stretch their legs. This also gave them an opportunity to explore the beautiful Rhodes University campus. The sessions were taught and facilitated by Lecturers (Prof. Lizanne Raubenheimer, Amy Langston, and Sisipho Hamlomo) and Master’s students (Anele Sikhakhane, Aphelele Matshaya, Stanley Mbiva, Tamlyn Lahoud) from the Department of Statistics. Tagen De Wet (Honour’s student) and Solethu Sibanda (third year student) also assisted in the smooth running of the week. This week would not have been possible without the Community Engagement Office who provided all the necessary catering, printing, and packs for the learners.
