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Education students present research at Faculty’s Annual Postgraduate Research Conference

23 October 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo Rosina Mothiba

“Exploring Grade 12 learners’ substance abuse and its influence on their academic performance”, “The role of the School Management Team in addressing Homophobic Bullying in Xhariep public schools” and “Exploring the use of YouTube videos in the teaching and learning of fractions in Grade 4.”

These were some of the interesting research titles that were presented at this year’s University of the Free State’s (UFS) Faculty of Education Annual Postgraduate Research Conference. The two-day conference, now in its fifth year, took place from 6-7 October with the theme “Changing the Educational Landscape in Africa through ongoing research”. The conference is one of the faculty’s main events supporting its postgraduate students and ensuring time for completion for each one of them.

A total of 145 postgraduate students and 55 staff members attended the conference where the faculty’s postgraduate students get exposure to present their research in front of an academic audience.

Prof Loyiso Jita, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, delivered the keynote address and spoke at length about the graduation rates of master’s and doctoral students in the faculty. He challenged the presenters to hold themselves and each other accountable for progression in their studies and to produce high-quality research that will position them and the university in good stead nationally and internationally.

New teaching approach

In the study “Exploring the use of YouTube videos in the teaching and learning of fractions in Grade 4”, MB Tsoaela (PhD student), explores the teaching and learning of fractions using YouTube videos in Grade 4. In trying to answer the main research question, “How do Grade 4 educators teach fractions utilising YouTube videos?” The researcher states that: “The use of YouTube videos is a very new way of learning in the South African context. This new teaching approach has proven to be exciting for young learners in Grade 4 because it has many options like animations, colourful videos, and pictures. Even though YouTube learning is exciting and fun, its implementation has challenges such as teachers wanting to use a chalkboard. Another challenge is the current load shedding.”

Psychosocial implications of school violence

Another PhD student, MDL Stack, investigated how to design an assessment for Higher Education that ChatGPT is unable to provide an answer that will pass without human intervention in his research paper titled “Investigating an assessment design that prevents students from using ChatGPT as the sole basis to pass assessment in Higher Education at undergraduate level”. He argued that “ChatGPT has presented significant challenges to lecturers when they set assessments at tertiary level.

“There is enormous potential for students to attempt to use ChatGPT to write and pass assessments designed at undergraduate level,” the researcher writes.

Another research paper looked at the psychosocial implications of school violence on teachers in Motheo District public schools in the Free State, arguing that school violence against teachers continues to be a phenomenon that is increasingly disturbing, while having serious implications on South African and global societies. Many teachers suffer social and psychological stress but not much has been done to understand learner-induced violence against teachers.

Exposure for students

Prof Matseliso Mokhele-Makgalwa, the acting Vice-Dean Research and Postgraduate Studies, says the purpose of the conference is to give exposure to master’s and PhD students to present their work in front of an academic audience (staff and students) as well as for them to get comments and feedback from experts and fellow students on their on-going research studies.

“The conference is about sharing the ongoing research being done by our master’s and doctoral students and/or reporting on their preliminary and final outcomes of the students who are about to graduate. By presenting their work, they disseminate key findings, build relations with other students and staff, and create inter- and multi-disciplinary networks for future collaborations,” says Mokhele-Makgalwa.

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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