Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
02 January 2018
Photo Destudio Architects and Urban planners
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.
Open Day 2014 gives visitors a glimpse of UFS
2014-05-12
The UFS was a hive of excitement and activity with the annual Kovsie Open Day on Saturday 10 May 2014.
From drumming up a storm during the welcoming ceremony to moving about the lively students and vibrant residence stalls, prospective students and parents can now also say that ‘only a Kovsie knows the feeling’. Visitors also had first-hand experience of how accessible our Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Jonathan Jansen, really is. At the Talk to Me gazebo outside his office, Prof Jansen dished up food while having a chat with parents.
This gesture echoed what Prof Jansen said earlier the morning as he addressed visitors to our Bloemfontein Campus in the Callie Human Centre. “The difference between us as Kovsies and other universities is that we are interested in you as a human being,” he said.
He then went on to introduce some of Kovsies’ top achievers. Among others were Izelle Lategan (U/21 SA women’s hockey player of 2013), Wayde van Niekerk (SA and Varsity Athletics 400m champion) and Izelke Klindt (BSc Hons in Astro Physics and winner of the Dean’s Medal in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences for 2014).
OFM presenter Success Lekabe, who acted as programme leader during the welcoming ceremony, praised the UFS as one of “the best university institutions from across South Africa.”
“Kovsies are changing their students’ lives to change the lives of others,” Lekabe said.
The 2014 Kovsie Open Day, with all its fun and laughter, reflected the truth of the UFS as an academic institution that inspires excellence and transforms lives to all its visitors.
Even if you missed the Kovsie Open Day, be sure to grab the chance to study at our university and ensure a lifetime of excellence and innovation. You can visit our Prospective student webpage for more information.