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18 January 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs
At the 31st Annual Conference of SAARMSTE, were from the left: Prof Loyiso Jita, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Education; Prof Dr Susanne Prediger, plenary speaker, Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor; Dr Maria Tsakeni, Head of the UFS Department of Mathematics, Natural Science and Technology Education and Conference Chair; Dr Tulsi Morar, SAARMSTE President; and Prof Mogege Mosimege, Research Chair in Mathematics Education and Director of Initial Teacher Education at the UFS.

The University of the Free State (UFS) hosted the 31st Annual Conference of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE) on its Bloemfontein Campus from 17 to 19 January 2023.

After two years of hosting the SAARMSTE conference virtually, it was presented as a hybrid conference for the first time. In attendance were delegates from the continent, the USA, India, Australia, and Europe.

The conference theme was: Intersecting Research, Policy and Practice for a Sustainable Praxis in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education: New possibilities and directions for the post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era.

 

Sharing best practices and discussing common challenges

SAARMSTE President, Dr Tulsi Morar from the Nelson Mandela University, believes that the conference provided fertile ground for delegates to share best practices, to discuss common challenges experienced during the pandemic, and to celebrate how these challenges were overcome. "It is only through our reliance and strength that we have succeeded, and because of our experiences, we can grow and innovate to be better prepared for any further challenges," he said.

Opening the event was Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS. He said the conference provided meaningful discussions for the challenges the world has to solve, stating that with challenges also come possibilities.

“We live in a time of significant change in the realm of technology, which has an impact on the world of work. Graduates will need to change their thinking in the world of work. They need to understand the future world of work,” Prof Petersen stated.

He also touched on curriculum reform, saying that a critical challenge for South Africa's education system is the decolonisation of the curriculum. What is being taught must make meaningful sense in our context. “The UFS has made significant progress in curriculum transformation since 2016,” he added.

With delegates as well as speakers from other countries present at the conference, Prof Petersen also talked about the UFS’ Global Citizens initiative. He said no country can operate in isolation. We need to learn from each other to move forward as a collective. “It is also vital to deliver global citizens,” he said.

“The importance of the SAARMSTE conference cannot be overemphasised in our current education landscape. We need sustainable relationships to be developed at conferences such as these in order to ask questions, think differently, and renew ourselves,” he concluded, stating that the role of humanities and social sciences in society is critical and that SAARMSTE can add value in this context.

 

Thinking indigenously about Technology education and its implementation

Contributing to robust discussions on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education, three keynote speakers shared their views during the three-day conference.

Prof Dr Susanne Prediger, Director of the newly established DZLM, the German National Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education, delivered the first keynote address of the conference. She talked about Fostering students’ understanding of procedures and underlying basic concepts: Design research for mathematics classrooms and teacher professional development in the post-pandemic era.

She said that although providing students with rich and deep mathematical learning opportunities is a common request in Mathematics education, many students are still only exposed to superficial learning. According to her, this was aggravated by the school closures during the pandemic and will continue in the post-pandemic era if Mathematics teachers are not sufficiently supported and prepared.

The second plenary was delivered by Prof Mishack T Gumbo from the University of South Africa. He is a Research Professor of Indigenous Technology Knowledge Systems Education in the Department of Science and Technology Education. The title of his talk was: A relook into Technology Education: Raising a transformational issue, where he focused on education, specifically the curriculum of Technology Education as a school subject.

The third plenary was delivered by Dr Gillian Roehrig from the University of Minnesota in the United States. Dr Roehrig is known for her research that explores issues of professional development for K-12 Science teachers, with a focus on the implementation of integrated STEM learning environments and the induction and mentoring of beginning secondary Science teachers.

Her paper, titled The Hows and Whys of Integrated STEM Education, explored the development of a conceptual and curricular framework for integrated STEM, and the benefits of using interdisciplinary approaches to address the policy goals of preparing students as STEM-literate citizens and for the future STEM workforce.

News Archive

Wildlife researcher in ground-breaking global research on giraffes
2017-10-20

Description: Giraffe read more Tags: giraffe, conservation, Dr Francois Deacon, Last of the Long Necks, Catching Giants 

Dr Deacon from the Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland
Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS),
lead a multispecialist research group to catch
and collar giraffe to collect data that will
contribute to the conservation of these animals.
Photo: Prof Nico Smith


Capturing 51 giraffes without any injuries or mortalities to collect data that will contribute to the conservation of these animals is not for everyone. Capturing a giraffe with minimum risk to the animal and the people involved, requires extraordinary skill, planning, and teamwork. “This exercise is a dangerous task, since a well-placed kick from these large and extremely powerful animals can cause serious injuries. Early in October was the first time that giraffes were captured on such a large scale,” said wildlife researcher Dr Francois Deacon.
 
Dr Deacon from the Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), led a multispecialist research group of over 30 people from 10 different countries to collect information about these little-known animals.

UFS first to collar giraffe
Taking a global approach, the team responsible for this intricate process consisted of wildlife biologists, conservationists, interdisciplinary scientists and five specialist veterinarians who are experienced in catching and working with wild animals. Specialised drugs sponsored by Dr Kobus Raath from Wildlife Pharmaceuticals, tested for the first time and administered with a dart gun were used to tranquillise the giraffe, which then allowed for the GPS collars to be fitted.  These collars, sponsored by Africa Wildlife Tracking, enable the researchers to record the location of individual giraffe for up to two years, give 24/7 readings, irrespective of weather conditions. In this cost-effective manner, data can be gathered on climatic factors, giraffe communication, social behaviour, home ranges, seasonal movements, human and giraffe interaction zones, as well as migration routes and the duration of the migration process. The collars will effectively be used to locate individuals to collect faecal samples for hormonal cycles, stress hormones, nutrient deficiencies based on diet and also internal parasites. 

“This knowledge we gain is the key to all keys in saving this iconic animal from becoming extinct,” said Dr Deacon.

Six years ago, during a pilot study, Dr Deacon was the first researcher to fit giraffes with a GPS collar. Collaring is less invasive and allows researchers to collect detailed samples. Not only was extensive knowledge and experience gained during the process, but he also initiated interest from the filmmaker and conservationist, Ashley Scott Davison, executive producer of Iniosante Inc. 

Getting to tell the story

Davison, who was doing research for a film on giraffe learnt about the silent extinction of the species. In a great number of countries giraffe numbers have been declining by as much as 40% over only a few years since 2000. Today West Africa has between 400 to 600 giraffe left while four out of five giraffes were lost in East Africa since 2000. This is a considerable decline in numbers and poses a real threat to the survival of the species in the longer term. At the end of 2016, the giraffe was classified as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red Data list.

According to Davison, children in school learn about the destruction caused by ivory poaching and habitat loss. But in Africa today, there are six times as many elephants as there are giraffes. 

In the process to find out more about this majestic species Davison learnt of Dr Deacon’s work. After being introduced to and spending time with Dr Deacon, Davison not only describes the UFS as the leader in the conservation of giraffes but he returned to the university, three times to help build a dedicated research team to address unanswered research questions within various disciplines.

Flowing from the affiliation with the UFS is Iniosante’s award-winning production of a documentary, “Last of the Longnecks”. The film has received several awards, including official selection at the 2017 Global Peace Film Festival, the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival and the Environmental Film Festival in the US capital. 

The film team accompanied the multispecialist research team last week to gather footage for a follow-up documentary, “Catching Giants”. This film is expected to air in middle 2018.

 Video clip of the event: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3kv9we690bwwto/giraffe_UFS_revision-01a.mp4?dl=0

Video clip of the event: RooistoelTV

Former articles on this topic:

18 Nov 2016: http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=7964 
23 August 2016: http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=7856 
9 March 2016:Giraffe research broadcast on National Geographic channel
18 Sept 2015 Researchers reach out across continents in giraffe research
29 May 2015: Researchers international leaders in satellite tracking in the wildlife environment

 

 

 

 

 

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