Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

South Campus Creative Clubs: empowering learners to excel

26 May 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs

UFS South Campus Creative clubs Initiative — UFS staff members from the Social Responsibilities Projects, Patience Aba, Judith Lefa, Noluthando Zwane, Dr Angela Stott, and Queen Selema, with a group of learners from the Ikaelelo Senior Secondary School looking at the effect of wind on the evaporation rate of water. This is one of the science experiments used as exemplars to stimulate the learners to plan their own science expo projects.

“This class teaches us how things work, and it gives us many ideas.” These are the words of Bokamoso Mahlasi, a Grade 9 learner at Ikaelelo Senior Secondary School, who says he dreams of becoming a radiologist one day.

He is part of a group of 100 Grade 9 learners from schools around Bloemfontein, who – once a week for two hours – have the opportunity to learn more about mathematics, science, coding and to prepare science expo projects. This is made possible through the Creative Clubs programme, an initiative of the Social Responsibility Projects on the University of the Free State (UFS) South Campus.

An opportunity to expand horizons

Dr Angela Stott, Researcher and Teacher Educator in the Social Responsibilities Projects, believes that they are providing township learners, who tend not to have much access to extracurricular opportunities, the chance to expand their horizons, obtain problem-solving and reasoning skills, and increase their interest in mathematics, science, and coding through a range of extracurricular extension activities.

Dr Joleen Hamilton, initiator and coordinator of this programme, says, “The learners attending these sessions are achievers in the current school system. Teachers often don’t have time to give extra stimulation to higher-achieving learners. With Creative Clubs, we want to address that gap.”

She continues: “Besides creating an interest in mathematics, science, and coding, we also focus on building self-esteem and confidence. Our thinking is that if learners believe in themselves, they are more willing to take on challenges. Developing skills such as perseverance and reflection form part of our focus as well. With some of the activities we also give learners the opportunity to work as a team, preparing them for real-life situations where one often needs to work in a group setting. By developing the mentioned skills, we aim to empower learners to excel in different areas.”

The importance of mathematics in real life

During the Creative Clubs sessions, a series on the basics of doing a science expo project is presented to stimulate interest in this competition and to guide the learners in planning their own science expo projects. Dr Stott adds that they are also presenting a session on extracurricular mathematics activities. “This includes problem-solving tasks, brain teasers, and games. We emphasise the importance and use of mathematics in real life,” explains Dr Hamilton.

We also focus on building self-esteem and confidence. Our thinking is that if learners believe in themselves, they are more willing to take on challenges. – Dr Joleen Hamilton

Also in the pipeline is a planned outing to the Naval Hill Planetarium, as well as a session introducing coding, where learners will be playing the Boats and Tanks coding game, teaching them the basic coding commands.

News Archive

Qwaqwa Campus launches No Student Hungry Programme

2013-05-02

Samkelo Duma (white shirt) flanked by some of the guests during the launch of the NSH Programme on the Qwaqwa Campus.
Photo: Thabo Kessah
02 May 2013

The Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State launched the No Student Hungry (NSH) Programme on Friday 26 April 2013. The programme aims to provide needy students with a daily balanced meal to enable them to concentrate in class and ultimately obtain their degrees. The programme – initiated by Vice-Chancellor and Rector Prof Jonathan Jansen in 2011 on the Bloemfontein Campus – already feeds hundreds of students.

Rudi Buys, Dean of Student Affairs who represented the Rectorate, encouraged students in need to focus more on their desire for greatness.

“Through this programme, you will be able you to shift your focus from the hunger pangs and rather focus all your energy on the hunger to make Africa great,” said Buys. “We want you to be different from the rest of your generation that is reluctant to compete for greatness. Many of your peers prefer mediocrity and it is our wish that through this programme, you can start learning to compete with the best,” Buys impelled.

According to the Qwaqwa Campus programme co-coordinator, Selloane Phoofolo, NSH operates on a primary and a secondary level.

“The primary level offers a food bursary to the students whose academic performance is above 65 percent and not receiving any form of financial assistance. For the 2013 academic year, we had 53 students applying and 31 have qualified. They are getting a meal for R25.00 a day at the Dining Hall,” said Phoofolo.

She further explained that, “On the secondary level, we provide monthly food parcels to 19 students who did not qualify for the food bursary. These food parcels are donated by Pick n Pay and Stop Hunger Now SA. For this, beneficiaries must undertake 40 hours of community service during the year. They must also partake in student activities. Their academic progress is monitored by the Office of Social Work.”

One of the beneficiaries, a final-year BA degree student Samkelo Duma, expressed his gratitude towards the UFS for giving him an equal opportunity to those in more fortunate situations to do his best in his studies. “It is difficult to study and concentrate on an empty stomach and I must say that the NSH is very helpful. I do not just get a meal, but I get a healthy meal to keep me going throughout the tough day,” Duma said.

Also present at the launch were the patrons of the programme, Ms Grace Jansen and Dr Carin Buys. They volunteer their time and energy to raise funds for the project.

Students apply for the allowances and are selected on the basis of financial need, academic results, active participation in student life programmes and commitment to give something back to the community.

You can also invest in these students' future by contributing R10.00 each time you sms the word 'Answer' to 38722.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept