24 January 2019
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Story Leonie Bolleurs
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Photo Leonie Bolleurs
Jade Venter, a Grade 9 learner from St Michael’s, enjoyed learning how to build a robot. She is pictured here with Maletlu Tshidiso from Bainsvlei Combined School; Dr Nixon Teis; and Adam Marais from Microbotics.
“I always wanted teachers, technology teachers in particular, to expose learners to interesting and relevant subject matter. We find ourselves in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and our schools (and universities) should reflect this. I believe we can do this by working in with industry; I found the merSETA to be the most relevant partner in this regard.” This is according to
Dr Nixon Teis, lecturer in our
School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Technology Education within our
Faculty of Education.
In 2017,
merSETA appropriated R8,7 million to the UFS Faculties of Education and Natural and Agricultural Sciences (Project EnSci) to contribute to the development of engineering habits of mind.
Professional developmentThe funds allocated to the Faculty of Education were used for the professional development of in-service technology teachers, student teachers, and learners in Engineering Graphics and Design as well as Robotics. The training was offered in conjunction with Microbotics.
“Our training programme aims to capture basic technical concepts in an interactive manner. We focus on all the concepts featured in the Technology curriculum and integrate this with robotics to make learning more interesting and relevant for learners, and to show Technology teachers another perspective of the curriculum outcomes,” said Dr Teis.
In line with world trendsWith more than twenty-eight years’ experience of technical or technological training to learners and students, Dr Teis is hoping that South Africa could today demonstrate on a bigger scale that we are in line with world trends in technical fields and that educational and training institutions are also representative in this context.