Chemical company, BASF, was awarded the "Best Workshop-Outreach" prize for its successful Kids’ Lab workshops at SciFest earlier this month.
Chemical company, BASF, was awarded the "Best Workshop-Outreach" prize for its successful Kids’ Lab workshops at SciFest earlier this month.
Although it began in Germany in 1997, since 2011, Kids’ Lab has evolved into a global programme, with over 500 000 children in 35 countries participating so far. In South Africa alone, the initiative has reached almost 20 000 children.
Kids’ Lab is an interactive chemistry education initiative and has won SciFest awards in the past – “Best Newcomer Exhibition” in 2013 and “Exhibitor of the Year” in 2014.
It gives children between the ages of 8 and 15 hands-on opportunities to explore chemistry by working together in guided experiments. The idea is that it gives them a better understanding of chemistry and encourages them to find out more about the world around them.
The emphasis is on fun and the themes are relevant to real global issues – most recently the focus has been on water.
In 2015, Kids’ Lab introduced a new experiment called “Keep cool!” which had its first outing at SciFest 2016 and it focused on "How can we avoid food losses so that there is enough healthy food for everyone to eat?"
Children then did a series of age-appropriate experiments related to the topic – for example, “How can we keep drinks cool for longer?"
Speaking about the win, Joan-Maria Garcia-Girona, Managing Director of South Holdings Africa and Country Cluster Head for Southern Africa, “Kids’ Lab not only strives to improve science literacy, but it also aims to captivate the inquisitive nature of the younger generation.
“Through initiatives such as Kids’ Lab, BASF continues to foster young people’s interest in natural sciences – especially chemistry – and Scifest Africa is the ideal platform to achieve this goal.”
