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.