Dear FHSST members
Here is a quick synopsis of the scifest 2005. I still have 3 Gb more of
video footage: interviews, and scifest traffic. I told the kids I would get
some of the footage put on the website, any ideas? The attached movie file
has some kids shouting FHSST is coooool!
Yours sincerely
Ismail
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Dear Jon
Greetings, my name is Ismail. I was the FHSST representative at the scifest 2005. Thank you for your interest in our volunteer textbook-writing project.
I had to leave Grahamstown early but another representative (Kevin Govender)
has taken over. I did however speak to a seniour steering committee member
(Spencer Wheaton) based at UCT, who is very excited at the prospect of gaining
media publicity through SAfm. We would love to accept your offer of
interviewing us and we hope we can make an arrangement either with Kevin or
preferably with Spencer. Here are their details:
Spencer Wheaton, PhD student, Theoretical Physics, UCT:
083 626 2055
Kevin Govender, Nuclear Physics Researcher, NEC:
082 487 8466
I hope you had a productive and enjoyable visit to scifest 2005. FHSST looks
forward to exciting future collaboration.
Yours sincerely
Ismail Akhalwaya
Masters Student
UKZN
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Diary
Wednesday
Arrived late.
Thursday
Met Kevin Govender, very friendly guy.
Kevin is an enthusiastic patron of science education and South African upliftment.
Kevin spoke to the director to get floorspace. The director said we could set
up anywhere!
We setup the posters and arranged for two tables on the first floor, next to
the UCT stand.
I met many people, all of whom were very supportive. I asked teachers to help,
even if it meant simple editing. I asked parents to email us letters of support
and encouragement. I told students to work hard and call their teachers to the
stand!
The general blurb I gave was that FHSST was started by a group of university
students who wanted to give something back to SA. The students identified a
problem area in the education system where they felt they could make a
difference. The problem was the high cost and poor distribution of textbooks.
The solution was writing free and good quality textbooks for which the printing
costs would be covered by sponsorships and then extensively distributed,
especially to rural areas. The project slowly gained momentum and then took off
when it went onto the internet, harnessing the power of volunteer collaboration
under the GNU free license model.
Friday
Brought my laptop, printer and webcam.
Printed leaflets with the website address.
Met the largest number of people today.
I used the laptop to show visitors the fhsst website.
Filmed students shouting "FHSST rocks". Filmed teachers giving suggestions. Met Brian Wilmot(address@hidden), the director of scifest, who gave his enthusiastic support.
Met some semi-high ranking education guy (I think it was Prof Mike
Lee(address@hidden)) from Northern province, we discussed the problems of South
African higher education. He felt there was a problem with school attitudes
towards science, in that they felt it was too difficult and they discouraged
students taking science subjects in order to boost their pass rates, which the
government put too much emphasis on. Also teachers are not very well trained in
science and you find the ludicrous situation of markers of matric science
papers not being able to pass them themselves! He (or was it someone else hmm)
gave me two names of people we should contact Prof Diane Grayson (UNISA) and
Prof Max Braun (UP) who are heavily involved in science education.
Saturday
Printed more leaflets. Met Wendy Ling (address@hidden) of the SA lib 4 the blind. She would love to use our books for there library, I offered to have the books available in any form most suitable for easy conversion. Met SAfm presenter Jon Gericke, who took a short interview. Jon said he would happily give us a full interview if we emailed him. Spoke to Mrs Mabee Mdlalose from Petroleum Agenvy SA (website:www.petroleumagencysa.com). She was very supportive, she said that she is in charge of some funding from her company which she may be able to give to us in two years time or something like that. we should download the form for funding and apply. She also suggested we try Upstream Training Trust 021 938 3526 or was that the same thing?
Sunday
Printed more pamphlets. Printed website, stuck it up. Noticed one poster has
gone missing! Left Grahamstown for Durban. Stand will be periodically manned by
Kevin who will also take it down on Tuesday.
Someone gave me these suggestions to add to the textbooks:
* Past Papers Worked examples
* Make it fun
* Make physics lyrics to well known songs!
* Add colour!
* Glossary(in other languages also?) to help second language English speakers
* Combine with technology.
Someone suggested we speak to exam setters/markers in government and ask what
areas need extra clarity, use and analyse goverment results of student
performance for tips on where to focus.
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