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15 October 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Jolandi Griesel
Dr Michael von Maltitz embraces the possibilities that the internet provides for education. He wants his students to be comfortable evaluating and using information from the internet to solve their problems.
“My research in teaching and learning is driven mostly by curiosity – when I feel something is not working in a class, I look for alternatives and I am quick to adopt something new.”

This is how Dr Michael von Maltitz approaches his research. This perspective on things is also what brought him an award from the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) during the Annual UFS Excellence in Learning and Teaching Conference 2020 that was held on 21 and 22 September 2020. 

Dr Von Maltitz, who is Programme Director and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science, received an Excellence in Learning and Teaching award in the category Technology Enhanced Learning. 

He teaches Causal Inference and Generalised Linear Models for third-year Mathematical Statistics students, and Sampling Distribution Theory for second-year Mathematical Statistics students. 

Follow the lead of practice

Grabbing the attention of the judges, he believes, was his passion for new teaching and learning methods. He is also of the opinion that it is important to embrace the information – the incredible amount of free, valuable content online – that is freely available to staff and students all the time.

“I am passionate about the fact that we need to stop asking our students to write tests when this is not done in that student’s industry. At university, we need to assess knowledge in the same way it is assessed in practice. This ultimately means that information capturing (which is what we expect from students in a textbook-to-test format) should be left to machines and the internet. Critical thinking, knowledge valuation, and self-assessment (i.e. facets of learning how to learn) should be developed while at university.”

“The internet is everywhere now, and we’re fooling ourselves if we think we can teach our students how to navigate their futures without incorporating the internet into our teachings,” he adds.

Dr Von Maltitz embraces the possibilities that the internet provides. “Hopefully, when my students are finished with my modules, they will be more comfortable evaluating and using information from the internet to solve their problems, like I do on a day-to-day basis,” he says. 

Seeking new methods

On receiving this award, Dr Von Maltitz voiced his gratitude for the opportunity to present his ideas and practices; “it suggests that others might find my work useful”.

He says that it helps him feel justified in trying new methods in teaching and learning every year.

Dr Von Maltitz has big plans for the next five years. He wants to make it to Associate Professor, partially on the strength of his teaching and learning portfolio.

“My goal is to ensure that my gradual exploration of my research field in Mathematical Statistics always raises the impact of my modules for my students and improves the quality and quantity of my postgraduate supervision. I also hope that my teaching and learning research will continue to improve my ability to transform my students into life-long learners.”


News Archive

Nanotechnology breakthrough at UFS
2010-08-19

 Ph.D students, Chantel Swart and Ntsoaki Leeuw


Scientists at the University of the Free State (UFS) made an important breakthrough in the use of nanotechnology in medical and biological research. The UFS team’s research has been accepted for publication by the internationally accredited Canadian Journal of Microbiology.

The UFS study dissected yeast cells exposed to over-used cooking oil by peeling microscopically thin layers off the yeast cells through the use of nanotechnology.

The yeast cells were enlarged thousands of times to study what was going on inside the cells, whilst at the same time establishing the chemical elements the cells are composed of. This was done by making microscopically small surgical incisions into the cell walls.

This groundbreaking research opens up a host of new uses for nanotechnology, as it was the first study ever in which biological cells were surgically manipulated and at the same time elemental analysis performed through nanotechnology. According to Prof. Lodewyk Kock, head of the Division Lipid Biotechnology at the UFS, the study has far reaching implications for biological and medical research.

The research was the result of collaboration between the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, the Department of Physics (under the leadership of Prof. Hendrik Swart) and the Centre for Microscopy (under the leadership of Prof.Pieter van Wyk).

Two Ph.D. students, Chantel Swart and Ntsoaki Leeuw, overseen by professors Kock and Van Wyk, managed to successfully prepare yeast that was exposed to over-used cooking oil (used for deep frying of food) for this first ever method of nanotechnological research.

According to Prof. Kock, a single yeast cell is approximately 5 micrometres long. “A micrometre is one millionth of a metre – in laymen’s terms, even less than the diameter of a single hair – and completely invisible to the human eye.”

Through the use of nanotechnology, the chemical composition of the surface of the yeast cells could be established by making a surgical incision into the surface. The cells could be peeled off in layers of approximately three (3) nanometres at a time to establish the effect of the oil on the yeast cell’s composition. A nanometre is one thousandth of a micrometre.

Each cell was enlarged by between 40 000 and 50 000 times. This was done by using the Department of Physics’ PHI700 Scanning Auger Nanoprobe linked to a Scanning Electron Microscope and Argon-etching. Under the guidance of Prof. Swart, Mss. Swart en Leeuw could dissect the surfaces of yeast cells exposed to over-used cooking oil. 

The study noted wart like outgrowths - some only a few nanometres in diameter – on the cell surfaces. Research concluded that these outgrowths were caused by the oil. The exposure to the oil also drastically hampered the growth of the yeast cells. (See figure 1)  

Researchers worldwide have warned about the over-usage of cooking oil for deep frying of food, as it can be linked to the cause of diseases like cancer. The over-usage of cooking oil in the preparation of food is therefore strictly regulated by laws worldwide.

The UFS-research doesn’t only show that over-used cooking oil is harmful to micro-organisms like yeast, but also suggests how nanotechnology can be used in biological and medical research on, amongst others, cancer cells.

 

Figure 1. Yeast cells exposed to over-used cooking oil. Wart like protuberances/ outgrowths (WP) is clearly visible on the surfaces of the elongated yeast cells. With the use of nanotechnology, it is possible to peel off the warts – some with a diameter of only a few nanometres – in layers only a few nanometres thick. At the same time, the 3D-structure of the warts as well as its chemical composition can be established.  

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za  
18 August 2010
 

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