It's 2.30 on Wednesday afternoon and Nadia Czeredrecki-Schmidt is glowing, still catching her breath after a jog.
She's fitted it in between her hectic school schedule – she teaches Life Sciences to Grade 10, 11 and 12 at Victoria Girls' High School, where she's Head of Publicity and also coaches swimming – and this interview in the school staffroom.
Czeredrecki-Schmidt is the driving force behind the group of pupils who dominated the regional Eskom Young Scientist Expo, in Grahamstown last Friday. She's co-ordinates the school's entries in the Expo, which she considers “one of the best things to promote science teaching and learning”.
Her role, she said, was to act as a sounding board for her student’s ideas, and guide them.
As a teacher, she said, one got an idea of what was happening in other schools. Pupils, likewise, were inspired by the projects they saw.
The Expo exposed pupils to both Physical Science and Natural Science, she said.
Czeredrecki-Schmidt found her way into teaching by accident. At first she'd wanted to pursue a career in Environmental Consultancy and did her Bachelor of Science at Rhodes University.
She had outstanding credits and decided to pick up teaching courses. After completing her Post Graduate Certificate of Education, she taught at Graeme College for a year, before moving to VG in 2002.
Commenting on the performance of the school's pupils in the competition, Czeredrecki-Schmidt said, “It shows that our students are very strong and we are teaching girls to produce projects that add value to the real world.”
For the past three years, VG has had students in the top five in the regionals, with two going to nationals. In 2007, one student made it to international level.
For the first round of the competition, a team of teachers, lecturers and Ph.D students judge the projects, which are then moderated to ensure a consistent standard.
The science projects for Grade 8s and 9s were screened to make sure they were the required quality. This screening process started internally.
Pupils were required to submit a science project and, if they received more than 70% they were encouraged to enter the Expo.
The projects for Grades 10, 11 and 12 are primarily research based. teachers assess these on their potential.
When she is not busy at the school, cooking and gardening are Czeredrecki-Schmidt's favourite pastimes.
Originally from Johannesburg, she enjoys the quality of life in Grahamstown. “Here you have children playing in the street, you can walk everywhere and everyone knows each other,” she said.
It's 2.30 on Wednesday afternoon and Nadia Czeredrecki-Schmidt is glowing, still catching her breath after a jog.
She's fitted it in between her hectic school schedule – she teaches Life Sciences to Grade 10, 11 and 12 at Victoria Girls' High School, where she's Head of Publicity and also coaches swimming – and this interview in the school staffroom.
Czeredrecki-Schmidt is the driving force behind the group of pupils who dominated the regional Eskom Young Scientist Expo, in Grahamstown last Friday. She's co-ordinates the school's entries in the Expo, which she considers “one of the best things to promote science teaching and learning”.
Her role, she said, was to act as a sounding board for her student’s ideas, and guide them.
As a teacher, she said, one got an idea of what was happening in other schools. Pupils, likewise, were inspired by the projects they saw.
The Expo exposed pupils to both Physical Science and Natural Science, she said.
Czeredrecki-Schmidt found her way into teaching by accident. At first she'd wanted to pursue a career in Environmental Consultancy and did her Bachelor of Science at Rhodes University.
She had outstanding credits and decided to pick up teaching courses. After completing her Post Graduate Certificate of Education, she taught at Graeme College for a year, before moving to VG in 2002.
Commenting on the performance of the school's pupils in the competition, Czeredrecki-Schmidt said, “It shows that our students are very strong and we are teaching girls to produce projects that add value to the real world.”
For the past three years, VG has had students in the top five in the regionals, with two going to nationals. In 2007, one student made it to international level.
For the first round of the competition, a team of teachers, lecturers and Ph.D students judge the projects, which are then moderated to ensure a consistent standard.
The science projects for Grade 8s and 9s were screened to make sure they were the required quality. This screening process started internally.
Pupils were required to submit a science project and, if they received more than 70% they were encouraged to enter the Expo.
The projects for Grades 10, 11 and 12 are primarily research based. teachers assess these on their potential.
When she is not busy at the school, cooking and gardening are Czeredrecki-Schmidt's favourite pastimes.
Originally from Johannesburg, she enjoys the quality of life in Grahamstown. “Here you have children playing in the street, you can walk everywhere and everyone knows each other,” she said.
