Making science fun

Gold producer B2Gold, in partnership with the Little Shop of Physics from the University of Colorado in the US, recently held a Science Day at the Dawid Bezuidenhout High School. The initiative was used to teach learners how to use simple materials to gain knowledge about physics concepts in a simplistic manner.

Sheri Lytle from B2Gold shared that the point of the fun day was to show learners that they could have an exciting time while studying science and that there are many creative ways they can use science to study.

“We want to show Namibian learners that science is not a difficult subject and that they too can have fun while being taught about science. We are engaging learners and telling them that they can use simple everyday items to demonstrate scientific principles,” she said. Brian Jones from the Colorado university said that there have been numerous collaborations between the Little Shop of Physics and University of Namibia which saw lecturers and students from the university gain knowledge on how to work with scientific equipment on a training trip to the US.

“We've held several workshops where we taught some lecturers and students some of the basics about the equipment and how they can make them.

“These lectures then use these skills we teach them and then they impart these to learners in Namibia.”

Bruno Hambira, a learner from Dawid Bezuidenhoud High School said the Science Day was a great initiative to broaden the knowledge of learners and that it was a different teaching method because they could learn more about what they were taught in class by using some of the equipment at the event.

“I am inspired to study astronomy in the future because of what I was taught at the event,” he says.

For Jefete Umbila from Ella Du Plessis Secondary School, the event was an opportunity for the Namibian youth to engage one another and it was a good platform for learners to work with one another in the future. “I met other learners from many different schools and some of them have the same ambitions as I do.

“We want to work on projects in the science field and meeting them at this event opened me up to like-minded people I can collaborate with when the time is right,” he said.

Nine different schools from the Khomas Region were at the event which focused on different areas of physics such as magnetism, electricity, light and colour, forced motion and energy.

Shona Ngava