Apple-powered light bulbs and cellphones charged by the sun are just some of the innovative experiments likely to light up Eastern Cape classrooms, as science education in the province goes basic.
Apple-powered light bulbs and cellphones charged by the sun are just some of the innovative experiments likely to light up Eastern Cape classrooms, as science education in the province goes basic.
A memorandum of understanding signed in August between Siemens Stiftung (the Siemens Foundation) and Walter Sisulu University will see science competency centres for education students and teachers established in the Eastern Cape.
Siemens and Experimento, a company that designs experiments with household products, is using ordinary household goods like washing powder and tartaric acid to demonstrate experiments usually requiring highly equipped labs.
Few schools in the Eastern Cape have laboratories or lab equipment.
Education students from WSU will be equipped to use this knowledge in the classroom to conduct safe experiments in rural areas, using these affordable household products.
Teachers from 24 schools in the rural Eastern Cape were given materials and instructions how to use them. All the experiments were conducted in ordinary classrooms, with no special lab equipment.
“These centres will equip WSU lecturers and education students with a better background to provide training and guidance to teachers in this part of the province, and to contribute towards better education for learners at school level,” said WSU education faculty Acting Executive Dean, Professor Adriaan Coetser.
The project came about in 2010 when Peter Loshe, the global CEO of Siemens, visited former president Nelson Mandela as part of a celebration of 50 years in business.
He was then asked by Mandela why there was no high school in his home village, Mvezo. After this encounter, Siemens offered the R150 million for the project of science competency centres.
The university's School of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education director, Dr Prince Jaca, is the overall coordinator of the project. He says this is part of a bigger project of science development in the Eastern Cape.
The plan for science in the province
Jaca says the Eastern Cape will be divided into regions, where centres will be erected. This way, every school will have a science centre no more than an hour’s drive away.
“But that will take time,” he said.
First science teachers need to be developed, "Then the results and progress will show with time."
“This way every child will have access to these centres, so that when they get to varsity they won’t be overwhelmed by labs,” said Jaca.
Jaca said to develop successful science teaching in the Eastern Cape there needed to be an institution to provide scientific development.
Siemens has proved a perfect match.
Peter Loshe says science development is their company's core business.
“This is a breakthrough,” said Jaca. “Siemens could have picked any university in the Eastern Cape, but they had confidence in WSU.”
The school will take the first 400 applicants. Tuition is free and the project will be officially opened in January by President Jacob Zuma.
