Young Ambassadors for Chemistry in Grahamstown, South Africa

Science Across the World took part in the SASOL Science Festival in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape in South Africa from Monday March 19th – Friday March 23rd, 2007. Ken Ngcoza, Science Education Lecturer at the Science department, Faculty of Education of Rhodes University, hosted the course. The Young Ambassadrs for Chemistry (YAC) event was organised with 80 students on the cathedral square in the centre of the city. The students (age 14-18) performed the chemistry experiments and explained their activities to the passing public. This was the fifth YAC event, facilitated by many global organisations, building on the successes of those held over the last two years in Taipei, Taiwan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Krasnoyarsk, Russia and Gwangju, Korea.

SASOL SciFest

The Science Festival is an annual event, largely sponsored by the South African oil company SASOL with support of many other firms. 45,000 people took part during the week!
Grahamstown was a delightful place to run a workshop and the weather was ideal. The square in front of the cathedral, right in the town centre, was the perfect venue for our YAC event. Our students kept an eye on interested passers by, they counted hundreds of them!

The course

After a full teaching programme from early morning till lunchtime in their schools, 24 teachers from 10 schools from townships around the region, all graduates from Rhodes University, took part.
We introduced a simple technique for creating discussion in the classroom. To practice the teachers were submitted to the Supertasters Test. Khululikhaya had only six, but they were enormous! The group task was creating a visual means for presenting the data they collected.
We also ran a session in the computer room. In a closing survey of the group the night before, we had asked how many of the colleagues were happy to work on the computers and found that 6 out of 22 were confident. It turned out that the teachers were being very modest about their abilities and by the end of the morning we had created an email address for those who didn’t have one and signed everyone up to the Science Across the World programme.
In the afternoon the teachers practiced the practical work their students were going to perform during the YAC event. They built a 3 metre model of 'Makana' DNA from liquorice and jelly tots (from the Science Across the World resource 'Talking about Genetics') and they designed, prepared and presented a new line of South African cosmetics, including bath salts, hair gel (for black curly hair) and shampoo (from the Science Across the World resource "Chemistry in our lives'). The teachers’ presentations were excellent, but one teacher stood out and won the BioRad DNA extraction (Genes-in-a-Bottle) kit. Shakes was so dramatic and energetic that he was an easy choice. The group prize was well-fought too, but the traditional piece of Lida’s Dutch cheese was actually chopped up and shared by everyone in the group.
On the Thursday afternoon the teachers prepared for the YAC day. This involved preparing the DNA kits, the cosmetics workshops as well as the tasks for the roving reporters and the bags of gifts for the students from our sponsors. The idea is that the teachers by now know exactly what to do during the public YAC event. We appointed coordinators for many different tasks, as well for the science as the logistics, e.g. the coordinator for the refreshments during the break, the coordinator for the gifts from the sponsors.
The course ended with certificates of recognition for all participants and a lot of kissing and hugging!

YAC day: Friday March 23rd, 2007

The sun shone, we burned in the strong South African sun and the students and teachers performed Chemistry. We asked for 30 students, but around 80 students in their smart school uniforms spent the afternoon with us! We decorated the venue with the invitation posters (also scattered over Grahamstown) and the winning posters from the competition 'Chemistry for Humanity'.
We just improvised, so the result was the students could build the largest edible DNA model from sweets ever created at 12 metres (Guinness may like to get in touch!). This has to be one of the best public awareness of science events we have ever had the luck to be a part of.
The roving reporters did a fantastic job, with teacher Vuks as the ever stimulating leader.

Coordinators for South Africa

Dr Erica Steenberg from University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg has agreed to act as a coordinator for South Africa. Ken Ngcoza from Rhodes University, Grahamstown will assist her in the Eastern Cape.

Acknowledgements

Partners involved in the event make a longish list, so thanks go to:

• IUPAC;
• GlaxoSmithKline as the former main sponsor of the Science Across the World programme, who also sent goody bags for all participating teachers and students;
• Dr Erica Steenberg from University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg as our wonderful South African organiser;
• Ken Ngcoza from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, as the local organiser;
• SASOL Scifest (Brian Wilmot) for a great deal of input during planning of the project, sponsoring participants' lunches during the workshops and transport of the students from Joza;
• South African Chemical Institute (Dr. Mike Booth) and RADMASTE Centre (Prof. John Bradley) for sponsoring the course book printing;
• RADMASTE Centre for supplying teachers' files;
• Rhodes University, Department of Education for hosting the workshops;
• MiST (Mathematics, Information and Communication and Technology (ICT), Science Research Centre of Rhodes University, for liaising with IT, writing letters and contacting schools;
• Department of Education (DoE), Grahamstown District for writing a covering letter to ensure that teachers were able to attend the workshops before the end of the school day;
• Ms Kate Benyon for organising, booking the YAC Event venue and securing tables to be used for the YAC event near the Cathedral;
• Cognis, for donating the detergent, the raw material for production of a shampoo;
• BioRad for donating a Genes-in-a-bottle kit, being the price for the best acting Science teacher;
• Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) in the United Kingdom for donating the cd-roms 'Seeing Science' (life, space, materials, food, environment and light);
• Roche for donating the cd-roms 'Roche Genetics';
• University of Cambridge, International Examinations for donating the cd-roms 'Science Support Resources for teachers'.

June 2007
Text and pictures: Lida Schoen, Keith Kelly