Date: 09 Sep 2005
Title: Mini labs take science to rural schools
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By Kulani Mavunda
Bethal - Rural high school pupils in Mpumalanga will now have access to well-equipped mini science laboratories.
The mini laboratories are small, compact, durable boxes that weigh no more than 15kg and do not need electricity.
They also come with printed and electronic manuals, as well as equipment and chemicals for the Grade 8 and 9 Natural Science curricula.
"The mini labs are designed to bridge the gap between secondary and tertiary education by stimulating an interest in science," said provincial education spokesperson Thomas Msiza.
He said the mini labs were donated by a marketing company called the Bright Idea Project.
"The new laboratories will allow pupils to put theory into practical learning," he said.
Mini-labs have already been donated to Lekete and KwaMhlanga high schools.
Co-owner of the Bright Idea Project, Isaac Johnson, said the manuals would eventually be translated in all eleven languages and cater for grades four to nine.
"Language will not be a barrier," he said. "We envisage the mini lab to be a standard item in all under-resourced schools, in both rural and metropole regions, within the next two years."
On Friday, eight more mini labs, worth R48 000, will be handed over to Ikhethelo Secondary School in Mzinoni near Bethal. - BuaNews
TESOL CALL-IS on 17 Nov 14"Back in the day-we usually referred to visible thinking as explicit thinking. But, as with many solid, worthwhile constructs, they are not readily adopted and so often reappear decades (or centuries!) later under a new name with new advocates and with a new dream that maybe this time things might stick and better the lives of students. "So it is with visible thinking. The basic idea is to uncover the implicit and inert thinking and to make that thinking discussable and perhaps available to others. For it is by objectifying knowledge that we can come to understand it." Talking through a project or the composition process is another way to make learning explicit. Explicit understanding of the process is part of Bloom's Taxonomy.