KIDSIENCE FUN & GAMES @ SASOL SCIFEST
This year’s bumper 15th anniversary edition of Scifest Africa is a veritable playground of accessible and enjoyable science-inspired and inspiring fun for children of all ages!
KIDSIENCE FUN & GAMES @ SASOL SCIFEST
This year’s bumper 15th anniversary edition of Scifest Africa is a veritable playground of accessible and enjoyable science-inspired and inspiring fun for children of all ages!
The ever popular children’s cartoon series ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ may have made the concept of science cool for kids, but at Scifest Africa 2011 the three-dimensional physical reality of kidscience is taking on epic fun-filled proportions, for everyone from pre-schoolers to matrics! And it’s perfectly in line with the Scifest ideal of not only making science actually accessible, but also inspiring an interest in the discipline from an early age. Of course, children often learn best through play and tactile experience. So this year at Scifest Africa, play and experience they will!
A huge driving force behind the vast variety of kidscience activities at Scifest Africa 2011 is to demystify scientific pursuits by changing children’s perceptions of them – Essentially taking them out of the realm of the high-browed, demonstrating their everyday applicability and making them as enjoyable and laughter-filled as possible. In this Scifest has succeeded – with a children’s programme that reads like an Alice in Wonderland Journey to the Centre of the Earth Star Trek adventure!
Indeed, for South African kids that think of robots either as those poles that blink red, yellow, green at intersections, or as movie and cartoon characters, the Afrobot Robotics Tournament will be a revelation! Imagine using basic electronic components and household materials to build a robot that plays soccer! While if last year’s Scifest is anything to go by, the LaserX laser show will be mindblowing! And that’s just for starters, because the activity options are enjoyably endless!
There’s phenomenal puppetry at the Chemistry Party with Sibo, the famous character from the Sibo series by author Ginny Stone; Scikidz I and II as playful learning introductions to science for pre-schoolers; the Soap Box Derby where children design, build and race a soap box car; a fun sleepover with the crazy team from Living Maths, with games, riddles, brainteasers and movies; the Rhodes University Junior and Senior High School Quizzes with scholarships to Rhodes up for grabs; the Science Olympics where learners’ engineering skills are tested in various structure-building activities; the fast-paced AMESA Interschool Mathematics Relay; the opportunity to build a satellite in the SANSA Satellite-building competition; learning chocolate creativity at the junior chefs academy; participating in a role-playing whodunit murder mystery game; experiencing the Denel Aviation Super Flyer paper airplane competition and kids’ aviation industry workshop; enjoying a stunning assortment of educational plays and edutainment; as well as being exposed to a glorious array activities, lectures, experiences and shows – everything from agriculture through the ages at the Bathurst Agricultural Museum, to supersonic science with the Bloodhound project seeking to break the World Land Speed Record in South Africa, to Good Vibrations that uses interaction to teach the culture and mathematics of music and musical instruments, to learning about kitchen chemistry, exploring astonishing alchemy and curious chemistry as co-creators of the modern world, going on astronomy game drives through the Addo Elephant Park, learning about mapping and fish stock preservation, exploring Eastern Cape estuaries, experiencing a day in the life of a research assistant and much, much more!
Ultimately at Scifest Africa 2011 the aim is for every child to learn how amazing science can be, because of the myriad wonderful ways in which it touched them!
