Dear Readers

2012 is a very important year for RADMASTE, because it marks the 21st year of the existence of the Centre.  From its humble beginnings at Gatehouse on the Wits Braamfontein East Campus to the uppermost floors of University Corner Building (with its ever-troublesome lifts) and now on the first floor of the Marang Block at Wits School of Education, RADMASTE has contributed -and will continue to contribute - to excellence in Maths, Science and Technology Education. Happy 21st Birthday, RADMASTE!

One quarter of the year has already passed, but since early January RADMASTE has been busily involved in several projects.  The FET Maths and Science Short Courses for teachers funded by the CIGRÉ project is well under way, and our GET and FET presenters have been travelling to the Boitjhorisong Science Centre in Sasolburg to deliver Senior Phase Natural Sciences, Senior Phase Maths and Physical Sciences Short Courses for teachers there.

All of the Short Courses are being presented with the recently released FET and GET Maths and Science Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in mind.  In particular, for the Physical Sciences CAPS, RADMASTE has developed the South African Modular Pack or SAMP for learners to be able to carry out all Prescribed and Recommended practical activities for formal and non-formal assessment, as well as selected other practical activities as mentioned in the CAPS for Physical Sciences.  You can read more about this new product and its benefits on the SAMP page.

With Easter a fading memory, we look forward to the next quarter of 2012 and the start of a new project funded by the Kganya Education Fund Trust (KEFT) where teachers from Limpopo will be attending RADMASTE contact sessions at the Wits School of Education, starting in May.

Although 2011 has ended, we would not like to forget some of the highlights of that year. We share some important events here with you, including those that unfortunately did not feature in the 2011 Newsletters. We hope you enjoy the memories.
 

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011

The Global Water Experiment of IYC 2011

The Global Water Experiment (GWE) of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) dominated much of 2011, especially because of RADMASTE's significant contribution to the project. The Centre designed small-scale, low-cost kits and appropriate protocols for schools around the World to be able to participate in the GWE, particularly for those in poorer countries where resources were lacking to carry out the four activities of the Global Experiment (pH, salinity, water purification and solar still).

Within South Africa, RADMASTE assisted with water workshops at the Big Splash event in Cape Town, where the Global Water Experiment was officially launched by IUPAC and UNESCO from 21 - 25 March. The event was supported by the South African Department of Science and Technology, which provided sets of microscience equipment to 40 schools in the Cape Town area.

Following the launch, local interest in the GWE was high and a further total of 326 schools was supported with microscience equipment (and training where possible). SASOL CSI provided 205 of their schools with the microscale kits, and there were also significant contributions of the low-cost resources from SAASTA (75 schools/local science centres), the Royal Society of Chemistry - South Africa (21 schools), BASF - South Africa (10 schools) and SASOL Secunda (8 schools).

RADMASTE also distributed 108 sets of microscience equipment outside of South Africa. 12 of these reached Nigeria, and 2 School Packs were sent to Gambia. Stichting C3 in the Netherlands made a major contribution of School Packs to 75 Dutch schools and another 7 sets of microscience equipment reached the Delft region. One set of microscience equipment even found its way to a Tibetan Colony in Mundgod, India! The following table shows the total distribution of microscale water kits supplied by RADMASTE for the Global Water Experiment.

 

The AMESA 17th Annual National Congress - July 2011

The following paragraphs have been adapted from a report of the AMESA 17th Annual National Congress.

The AMESA Congress took place during the July school holidays on the Wits School of Education Campus. All RADMASTE Maths staff were involved in the conference activities.

The academic programme included interesting plenary, panel discussions and workshops. There were several parallel sessions that consisted of workshops, long papers and short presentations.  There was a focus on e-learning and free software at the workshops.

The Gauteng LOC introduced the AMESA fringe, which allows all attending educators to present their ideas without going through a reviewing process especially for a number of aspects which were not sufficiently covered in the programme, such as Foundation Phase issues, gender, multilingualism, assessment, etc. Using the fringe platform, topic discussions of interest could take place between participants.

Interest Group Meetings were formed to discuss the CAPS documents. There were successful phase committee meetings for Foundation Phase, Intermediate Phase, Senior Phase, Maths Literacy and FET Maths. Important maths curriculum issues were discussed and documented. The concerns raised have been formally submitted to the Department of Basic Education. There were also interest meetings for the Teacher Education Interest Group and the National Maths Week Interest Group. Another interest group for Writing and Reviewing was introduced at the 2011 Congress, to help AMESA members publish their research.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of AMESA took place on 14 July during the Congress. RADMASTE's own Elspeth Khembo (President of AMESA) delivered the presidential address at the AGM. Prizes were also handed out at the AGM: a teacher from Limpopo won interactive equipment worth R 8 500 and two other teachers won Casio calculators to the value of R 1 500 each.

No conference is complete without a social programme (party! party! party!). The welcome dinner marked the start of the Congress on the Monday, followed by a theatre evening on the Tuesday.  There were also exciting tours to Constitutional Hill, the Apartheid Museum and Soweto. Talented traditional dancers entertained participants at a cultural evening on the Thursday, followed by a music lounge where the teachers themselves showed their skills on the dance floor.

At the Closing Ceremony the existing Congress director (Lerato Mathenjwa) handed the baton to the director of the 18th Annual National Congress (Professor Hercules Niewoudt of the North West). Many sponsors have been thanked: Old Mutual, CASIO, Zenex Foundation, Macmillan Publishers, Heinemann Publishers, RADMASTE, Dymo-Mimio and several others.
 

MATHEMATICS LECTURER WORKSHOPS - October 2011

RADMASTE was requested to assist ten Mathematics lecturers from Vhembe FET College in Limpopo with Mathematics content from Level 2 to Level 4. They were trained on the following content: Functions, including trig functions, Radian measure, Calculus and Integration, Data Handling, Probability and Coordinate Geometry.

Different forms of facilitation were applied during training. Lecturers were given the opportunity to present their work to fellow lectures. They were also given the opportunity to assist one another. By so doing their level of confidence increased.

 

Eric presenting his work to his fellow lecturers.	Joyce assisting Livhiwani during training.