Running report (diary) of Capetown trip, Aug., 2002. Aug. 3. jat arrives, after plane diverted through Johannesburg because of fuel difficulties. PIcked up by Ginny Stone. walk around the iThemba labs led to attack by a swan, but no permanent damage done... Aug. 4. Ambrose Yaga, jat meet, begin packing, inventory of equipment. Aug. 5 (Monday). Melinda Nickelson arrives, all continue packing, inventorying, equipment, preparing. Frazer Siteti, local high school teacher member of team, has been called to Port Elizabeth for an emergency with his family. contact Nceba Mhlalo, who arrives late in the afternoon and surveys hands on activities and equipment. Aug. 6 (Tuesday). Ambrose Yaga picks up Nceba at the SAAO and equipment loaned to us by UCT; returns to iThemba, and we go to COSAT (Cape of Good Hope College) for our first visit... exploratorium style, with elementary particle lecture by jat, supplemetned by viewing equipment from BNL experiment E865 (mirrors). Visited with 50 10th graders, who were exceptionally interested and inquisitive. Loss of UV laser pointer points to need for better organization of equipment. Returned to iThemba labs, completed packing of resistors and optics labs for schools. collisions labs still need pennies. contact Trevor Daniels in the Winelands, and plan a 3-day trip there next week, including an evening exploratorium. hope to refine exploratorium presentation tomorrow, and finish our schedule. Aug. 7 (Wed). work on schedule and exploratorium equiment and info. see schedule on this web site, capetown_aug2002_sched.txt. Aug. 8 (Thursday). Ambsroe picks up Vernon from the airport. Vernon, jat, Melinda, and Ambrose, go to Luhlaza, meet with 4 gruops: a) class of about 20 students, jat discusses waves, particles, atom. b) 2 students stay after, jat discusses light scattering, show diffraction gratings, measures hair by diffraction pattern. c) ambrose, melinda,vernon talk with teachers d) class of 40 (frazer siteti's class...) split in 4 groups for hands on activities: collisions, light scattering, forces, electricity. students generally intent on understanding, ask questions, some cases ask to keep handouts. naturally also like to have their pictures taken. afternoon: 2-4:30 pm, exploratorium at iThemba labs. Vernon and Melinda handle it after brief E865 discussion by jat. jat and Ambrose go to get money. Ambrose takes studetns back home, then takes jat to buy food. Melinda and Vernon plan on city tour tomorrow which is a national holiday: women's day. talked to jonathan clark about evaluations: suggests discussions iwth students and teachers, in order to get not just : gee whiz, yes it was great responses, but thoughtful suggestions for change and improvement.. talked with peter oxenham, will ask lungisa to give comments and feedback from her students' experience with the exploratorium and jat discussion. plan COSAT exploratorium Aug. 17 (sat. morning), for their 10th graders. wayne alexander, the subject advisor for the metropole east, hopes to meet with jat.. see if we can find a time.. aug. 10. visit Kirstenbosch in morning. SEED (Science and Engineering E.. Day) at UCT. about 200 students, very lively group, asking questions and interested in the exhibits. Nceba Mhlalo's group may come to visit Aug. 17 to work on hands on labs. Maybe we could just give them the equipment and then they themselves could continue with Vuyiseka? still working on best presentation of e865 equipment. check out the e865_gen.doc in the e865 subdirectory. Natasha arrives in the evening. aug. 11. visit to Robben's Island is cancelled because of high winds on the water. trip to World of Birds instead is also interesting.. large flock of scarlet ibis, also other beautiful birds. unfortunately no pictures. ambrose, jennifer, and their son went with us. aug. 12. masiyile high school. Nosiyaneta Jonas. (science teacher). about 60 students. did collisions, light scattering, force tables, and electricity. positive comments, wished for more time. (this is school where ambrose yaga used to teach before last year). bought beautiful plastic tubs for putting school equipment in. packed several, also made school, experiment checkout sheets (lost 3/10 laser pointers at masiyile). aug. 13. (tues). team to paarl (about 70 students, at desmond tutu high school, which won first place at SEED) and wellington (also about 70 students). jat home ill, also makes some arrangements for later in the week, and meets with Joseph Madsau from Masakheke (we build together) Combined School (a farm school from tbe Overberg area, where Ms. Celeste Issel is the subject advisor. This school group was visiting the lab, and jat visited with the teacher, gave him an equipment tub after going over the experiments with him. He now teaches another subject (English?) but has been the science teacher and is interested in promoting science literacy in the school. He accompanied the group of students from the school for a tour of iThemba labs. packed the rest of available tubs, inventoried remaining required writeups, etc. prepared for wed-thursday trips. aug. 14. (wed). left 6:15 am for saldanha, on the western coast. there is a steel plant there which has not yielded the hoped for economic benefit. they are now expanding the harbor, hoping to take some of the strain off of capetown. arrived at saldanha about 9:15, met with principal (cliffie vraagom) and science teacher (ms. ursula booys). worked with 15-20 students for the day (rearranged classes so we could continue to work with students, and shift from one hands-on activity to another. brief and abbreviated exploratorium in the afternoon. enjoyed wonderful hospitality, somosas, and fresh fried fish as well as other comestibles. quick trip around the harbor, then on to clan william. beautiful flowers on the way... orange, white, lavender, yellow. some in carpets (lillies, daisies), some mounds of shrubs. stayed the night at cedar inn near clan william, found the school for the next day. aug. 15. (thursday). clan william high school. met with patrick muwnik principal), and ms. marcia de Jongh (biochemistry major, teaching physical science. worked with 12-15 students, again for the day, with schedules rearranged to accommodate the hands on activities. met trevor daniels (subject advisor for the westcoast/winelands area, who had arranged our trip) and pierre boonzaaie, chief subject advisor for the area. gave exploratorium in the evening for about 30 parents, 10 teachers, and 40-50 students, including about half a dozen small children who came in response to a casual invitation by the team earlier in the day. high interest by all sectors in the exploratorium.. using the magic wand to trace rays in tbe e865 mirrors, trying to pet our "virtual" pig, rotating on the platform with weights and the bicycle wheel, etc. aug. 16. (friday). travelled back from clan william. jat met with wayne alexander (subject advisor) and granville stander (technology subject advisor) of the metropole east (the area including khayelitsha). went over experiments and gave them a tub. they promised a report on usage, and said they would tell the other subject advisors of the work. we have now reached all but metropole north, metropole central, and the george/southern cape/karoo region. ajaria mohammet of metropole south (mitchell's plains, where glenn von harte is the chief subject advisor) will make later arrangements to come to iThemba and work with the equipment with ambrose yaga, take it back with her. peter oxenham suggests beufort west (science focus school) as possible good contact in the karoo EMDC region. aug. 17. (saturday). at COSAT from about 8:15 to 4pm. (worked with students only till about 2m; ambrose yaga was attending a farewell/appreciation function for himeself and 3 other former teachers at masiyile and was late picking us up). worked with 2 groups of 10th-12th graders, about 10-20 each. did hands on activities and exploratorium. went over kit contents with mr. aubrey van breda, chemistry and physics teacher. note from nceba mhlalo, indicating that tutors will now come wed. afternoon, 2-3:30 pm. vernon simmons will stay at iThemba to work with them so that they can then take back their kit and use it, perhaps as early as Thursday with their usual visit to Vuyseika HS. jat ticket changed to return Tuesday Aug. 20. remaining schedule anticipated: aug. 18: (sunday) early morning trip to Robben's island for the team, stay at home, working on finishing up for jat. aug. 19: manyano hs. details to be settled aug. 18. aug. 20: exploratorium style activities at Belleville expo. jat to airport by 2:30 pm for 4pm flight through johannesburg to us... aug. 21: vernon simmons will remain at the lab to work with nceba's tutors while others return to belleville. aug. 22; another day at belleville? (or possibly another school?) aug. 23: possibly school in morning, exploratorium at ithemba labs in afternoon? aug. 24: free for team to finish up, and explore capetown. aug. 25: free for team to pack, explore capetown, fly out 8pm. as was said about the J-burg team: it has been a dream team, and a dream experience (not without some hard work, of course, to make it come together). we are glad for the matrix of ongoing outreach in which we are embedded, and excited about the difference the availability of the equipment makes to the schools to which we have travelled. nearly all comments are positive, with the most negative being that more time was needed with the experiments and (in one school) that translators into Afrikaans would have been helpful. many students waxed poetic and melinda particularly treasures "you rocked my world!", along with other positive comments about the students' learning about collisions. 4-5 was a good size for the team, to allow simultaneous work with the 4 different hands-on activities and thus work in smaller groups. 4-5 was also a good number in the exploratorium, to cover the various stations. we were well satisfied with the interactive and personal nature of our exploratorium activities. although perhaps not as flashy as a show would have been, our evaluator feedback was that this mode was more likely to engage the students in a continuing way. we particularly treasured the COSAT students' continuous stream of "why" and "what good is that" questions. but all the students asked questions which kept us on our toes. suggestions for the future would include more work in the rural areas, possibly involving high school students in putting on a local exploratorium for the lower grades (using the success in clan william as a model).