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Learners from UFS Creative Clubs Programme shine at Bloemfontein Science Expo

16 August 2023 | Story Angela Stott | Photo Supplied

Participants of the UFS Creative Clubs Programme — 23 grade 10 participants in the UFS Creative Clubs Programme proudly pose with their awards.

All 23 grade 10 learners taking part in the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Creative Clubs Programme were awarded medals at the Bloemfontein regional Eskom Expo for Young Scientists (EYS) competition from 3 to 5 August 2023.

The learners, who attend Bloemfontein township schools, had been working on their projects for over a year as part of the Creative Clubs Programme, which is run by the UFS Faculty of Education. Guided by veteran Expo facilitators Dr Angela Stott and Coretha van den Heever, they attended 30 sessions on the UFS South Campus, with a total of 140 hours of face-to-face contact time, coupled with many hours of individual work at home, to prepare for the competition.

Their hard work paid off handsomely, with all 23 learners (who worked on 21 projects) achieving medals: six bronze, seven silver, and eight gold. Additionally, five of the learners won best-in-category awards, three won SA Youth Water prizes, and three were shortlisted for the international EYS competition.

“As an introvert, I found it difficult to explain my project to people, but I’ve developed communication skills and confidence through Expo,” said 15-year-old Nicolas Hugo, from Kagisho Secondary School, whose project won a gold medal. Nicolas studied water pollution levels at two inflow sites in the Bloudam catchment area, as well as the dam itself and its outflow, showing the astounding cleaning effectiveness of water reeds.

In addition to his gold medal he won the prize for the best project in his category, a special award in the category of water projects, and for the Best Development Project.

The UFS has a strong commitment to community engagement, and has been working with township schools throughout the province via school-university partnerships for over a decade. The 2023 Bloemfontein EYS competition celebrated the legacy of these partnerships not only through the 23 learners who were directly involved in the UFS programme over the past year, but also through the participation of 14 learners from two schools (Senakangwedi and Setjhaba Se Maketse) in Botshabelo as a direct result of the UFS’s work in those schools in the past. Before UFS ended its partnership with these schools, learners who had been involved in Expo programmes conducted by Dr Stott established science clubs in their schools. These clubs have continued to operate years after UFS exited the schools and the founding learners matriculated. This year these clubs yielded the winning project, Solar Power Stand, by Simthembile Hlahliso and Kabelo Sekoere from Senakangwedi High School.

Many of the learners said they have learned important skills through this process. “I didn’t know how to use a computer, but now I’m so good,” said Sylvia Hlangabeza, who won a gold award.

“I’m so proud of her, I cried,” said Sylvia’s proud mother.

News Archive

Universities can contribute to economic transformation

2010-01-27

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Neil Heideman (Acting Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences), Prof. Hartmut Frank (University of Bayreuth, Germany), Prof. Bianchi and Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen (professor in Chemistry at the UFS).
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

Universities have a role to play in economic transformation and industrial development according to Prof. Fabrizio Bianchi, the Rector of the University of Ferrara in Italy.

This was the core message of his lecture on the topic Globalisation, Agriculture and Industrial Development that he delivered at the University of the Free State.

He said after the collapse of the agricultural industry in Italy as a result of the subsidies that the farmers were receiving from the government, the university had to step in.

“This was meant to maintain high prices and maximize the production but in the long run this approach created problems because the farmers were no longer producing high quality products but large quantities in order to receive subsidies,” he said.

“The result was that the government itself had to destroy those poor quality products. This was a completely unreasonable way to manage the economy”.

He said they had to abandon that approach and concentrate on quality because they realized that Italy could not match the prices and the quantity, in terms of production, of countries like China and the USA.

He said “knowledge and human resources” were the key factors that could get them out of that crisis; hence they came up with what he called “the Made in Italy approach”.

“We were working on the idea that food is part of culture and that it is not just simply for refueling the body,” he said.

“One of the fundamental ideas was to come back to the idea that production is the centre of the development process.”

“Quality is a very complex, collective issue,” he said. “You cannot understand development if you do not understand that you have to base it on strong roots”.

This approach resulted in the formation of several companies with specialized niche markets producing high quality products.

His visit to the UFS coincided with that of the 1991 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Richard Ernst from Switzerland, who was also part of the fourth presentation of the Cheese fondue concept.

The main thrust of this concept is that technical advances alone are insufficient for an agreement to be reached on the minimum respect between the various groups and individuals within a society. It proposes that for this to be achieved there has to be a concurrent development of empathy and emotional synergy.

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

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