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02 January 2018 Photo Destudio Architects and Urban planners
Innovative maths and science space on the horizon for Faculty of Education
Architectural illustration of the planned Science Park on the university’s Bloemfontein Campus.

Situated next to the Winkie Direko Building on the University of the Free State’s Bloemfontein Campus, an exciting development in the form of a Science Park is on the horizon for the Faculty of Education. 

This future development will comprise an outdoor Science Garden and an indoor Science Discovery Centre. It will be characterised by interactive educational displays and exhibitions and will feature an ICT Laboratory, amphitheatre, Family Math and Family Science training facilities, as well as a “planetarium dome simulator”.

The Science Park is in line with the university’s commitment to advance teaching and learning with regard to mathematics and science.

“Since the Science-for-the-Future (S4F) unit from the Faculty of Education focuses on the development of innovative teaching and learning programmes, the envisaged Science Park will support and complement current and future engaged learning initiatives. The Science Park will be a customised teaching and learning environment that embraces and promotes the most effective ways of teaching science, mathematics and technology, through hands-on, interactive, experiential and student-driven educational methods. This will provide opportunities for student teachers from the Faculty of Education, as well as teachers who receive in-service training at the UFS, to enhance the scope of their maths and science pedagogical content knowledge,” said Dr Cobus van Breda, Programme Director of the Science-for-the-Future (S4F) unit in the Faculty of Education.

The Science Park will also serve as a social space on campus where all students can interact within a fun and exciting popular science environment. “We see this as a creative approach to the use of spaces on campus to create an aesthetic and educational added value,” said Prof Loyiso Jita, Dean of the Faculty of Education.

In future, the Science Park, along with the existing synergy between the science and mathematics training programmes based at the Faculty of Education, the Naval Hill Planetarium and the Boyden Observatory, will provide a rich and unique opportunity to experience real-life science as well as content in context; all contributing factors to effective teaching and learning.

The Science Park project is estimated to be completed by the end 2019.


News Archive

Vice-Chancellor honoured with major awards
2013-05-02

02 May 2013

The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, has been awarded a number of major awards recently.

The University of California in the United States awarded him the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. The award is made in recognition of persons who exemplify in their work the delivery of social justice, diplomacy and tolerance in the diverse local and global society.

“The committee was very impressed with the commitment that Prof Jansen has had to reconciliation and forgiveness as a way to build bridges and to find common ground. Prof Jansen is following in the steps of many of our greatest peace-time leaders and we support his efforts to bring understanding to all cultures,” said Mark Aldenderfer, chair of the awards committee and Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Art at the University of California.

Prof Jansen also received the 2013 Academia Award at the Sixth Annual Ubuntu Lecture and Dialogue Awards Ceremony of the Turquoise Harmony Institute on 4 April 2013 in Johannesburg. The Institute aims to foster relations among different faith and cultural traditions to contribute to the well-being of humanity.

According to the organisers, “outstanding individuals who made noteworthy contributions to dialogue, peace and harmony in the society,” are given recognition during the ceremony. The awards are made in a number of different categories. Prof Jansen was among the recipients who included Graca Machel and the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF). Previous winners of Turquoise Awards include Ahmed Kathrada, Chester Williams, Dr Frene Ginwala and Prof Russel Botman.

On 10 May 2013, Prof Jansen was also honoured by Kappa Delta Pi International Honour Society in Education. He was awarded membership of the Laureate Chapter of the society founded in 1911 which “is comprised of men and women who have made distinguished contributions to education, and is limited to 60 living persons”. Prof Jansen joins an exclusive membership of 293 which includes such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean Piaget and George Washington Carver.

Also in the United States, Prof Jansen has been invited to be Messenger Lecturer for Fall 2013 at Cornell University. He will give three lectures and interact with the students and staff of Cornell at various functions.

“This is a significant honour and it will really allow members from across the university to get a deeper appreciation of the work you are doing at UFS and in South Africa more broadly,” said Prof Judith Byfield of Cornell’s Department of History and Director of Graduate Studies at the department’s Africana Studies and Research Centre.

On the local front, City Press published its inaugural 100 World Class South Africans on 28 April 2013. During a rigorous selection process, 100 of our country’s most extraordinary citizens who have achieved world-class status were chosen. Prof Jansen’s achievements procured him a place on this prestigious list in the category: Heroes and Mavericks.

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