News from the Mission
Township Students “Do” Science at the Mae Jemison U.S. Science Reading Room
March 4, 2009
PRETORIA: Twenty top Grade 11 students were treated to a hands-on demonstration of the chemical properties of polymers, and the explosive nature of hydrogen, at a workshop at the Mae Jemison U.S. Science Reading Room conducted by local science education company ExperiLab.
The group was kept small so that each pupil could get a chance to make a non-Newtonian fluid, and to see what happens when one puts a flame near a balloon filled with hydrogen. At the end of the workshop, each student received a science kit from ExperiLab. Afterwards the enthusiastic students explored the bookshelves of the Reading Room to read more about chemistry.
In the first full month of operation, over 200 Mamelodi school children applied to become members of the Reading Room, 107 books were checked out, and 386 students and teachers signed the visitors’ book. Typically, up to 10 pupils crowd around each of the five Internet computers at a time, while science DVD screenings are also very popular.
