New Year 2019

Message for 2019: Please listen to science

Merry Christmas

The last newsletter of the year, number 2 of 2018, is available. It gives an interesting overview of the past year's activities. Click here to access it.

More than 200 000 pageviews

Thank you to all the readers of this website! 

It was a good feeling to observe that the number of pageviews exceeded 200 000 recently. Today it stood at 200 589.

Another interesting phenomenon is to see who the audience is. This picture shows where our readers are.

Best wishes and continue to enjoy hwscience.blogspot.com.

The amazing influence of drones and robots in Amazon's distribution centre

The future of deliveries will change completely when robots and drones are used more and more. The Wall Street Journal has recently published a very interesting article about Amazon's distribution centre in Baltimore, USA. 

The impact of human labour is getting less and less due to the amazing abilities of robots, drones, coding and computers. Is there a lesson in this for us in South Africa? We struggle so much with service delivery in general. Think water, electricity, delivery of your parcels and other mail, etc. Click here to go the page with interesting articles and follow the links from there. Alternatively, go straight from here to the article. You can read the original version here. In case it is not available, here is a printout of the article.

DBE, Siyavula and Sasol Inzalo Online Diagnostic Assessments

DBE, in partnership with Siyavula and the Sasol Inzalo Foundation, has developed an online platform for teacher diagnostic assessments in physical sciences (grades 10 to 12).

We have previously invited Free State teachers to take part in this, but now there is another opportunity to take part. Click here to read the circular from the DG of DBE, Mr H M Mweli, and click here to read the circular from the FSDE.

From these circulars you will see that:

• The assessments are focused on grade 10, 11 and 12 teachers.
• No data is needed for Vodacom and MTN subscribers.
• You can earn SACE professional development points (PDPs).
• The Free State has a target to reach until end of March 2019 and again for the end of March 2020.

What to do now? 

• Siyavula has asked for the contact details of all grade 10 to 12 physical science teachers.
• They will contact you by sms to enrol in the programme.
• Please use this opportunity for self-development as soon as you hear from Siyavula; it might even happen during the holidays. Best wishes and enjoy the experience!

Vacancy: Expo Provincial Coordinator (Northern Cape)

Somebody involved in Expo sent this to me. A vacancy exists for an Expo coordinator in the Northern Cape. Closing date is 19 December (I guess the 2017 is a typing error). Click here for more detail.

The kilogram is dead; long live the kilogram

16 November 2018 was an important day for science. A meeting was held in Versailles to take a final decision on the International Prototype Kilogram (IPK). What is this all about? Click here to read a fascinating article about the history of the kilogram and other metric units and how standardisation will take place in future. 

This is awesome material for teachers and learners. Three more articles are available here, here and here from The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The International Space Station (ISS)

How is life onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and what does it look like on the inside? Here is a pretty amazing and informative video of 28 minutes (60 MB) of what it is like. With this type of video, it is so easy to understand Newton's laws of motion for example. Just imagine how learners in a previous dispensation had to rely only on their imagination to understand aspects of the first law for example. Now they can "see" it happens. My thanks to the Facebook page of Boyden Observatory and the Naval Hill Planetarium for the video. Click here for the video and click here for more information about the ISS.

Provincial Finals of the Free State Physical Science Quiz for Grade 10: 2018

The final round of the Free State physical science quiz for grade 10 learners took place on 12 and 13 October 2018 in Bloemfontein. In this post, more information is available about the district finals in which the participants were selected for the final round.

The winning team in category A was Senakangwedi and the order of merit of teams in category A was as follows:
1. Senakangwedi
2. Rantsane
3. Dr Reginald Cingo
4. Leseding & Tsoseletso
5. Setjaba se Maketse, Phephetso, Kgola-Thuto, Clubview & Springfontein
6. Sekgutlong & Mookodi
7. Relekile, HTS Louis Botha & Thabo Vuyo
8. Lefikeng
9. Morena Mokopela
10. Kgolagano
11. Mamello
12. Winburg

The winning team in category B and overall winner was Grey College. The order of merit of teams in category B was as follows:
1. Grey
2. Witteberg
3. Goudveld
4. Sasol High & St Andrews
5. Voortrekker
6. Ficksburg & Eunice
7. Hennenman
8. Landboudal
9. Welkom-Gimnasium
10. Afrikaans High Kroonstad

Pictures of all the prize winners are available here.

Learners participated in the quiz at the STEM auditorium of the Central University of Technology. Click here for pictures of Friday. Friday evening was spent at Boyden Observatory, but the weather was unfortunately not good enough to see planets and stars. The Saturday programme was held at Naval Hill. Learners visited the Mandela statue while the rest of the events took place in the Environmental Hall and Digital Planetarium of the University of the Free State.

Congratulations to all the grade 10 learners and teachers of the Free State for a project well done! We hope you have enjoyed it! 

Thank you to everybody who contributed to make this a huge success! 

Provincial Finals of the Physical Science Quiz Grade 10: Prize-giving

Grey College: Overall winners with their teachers Mesdames
L Pretorius and M Stoltz!!

Senakangwedi Secondary School: Category A 1st place.
Mr TZ Tshabangu, his team and Mrs Andy Magadla, CES
of Motheo. 

Grey College: Category B 1st place.
The team with their teachers Mesdames M Stoltz
and L Pretorius and Mrs Andy Magadla, CES of Motheo.

Rantsane Secondary School: Category A 2nd place.
Mr SP Mabina, his team and Mrs Andy Magadla, CES
of Motheo.

Witteberg High School: Category B 2nd place.
Mrs EVisagie, her team and Mrs Andy Magadla, CES
of Motheo.

Dr Reginald Cingo: Category A 3rd place.
Mr R Lebohang and his team. 

Goudveld High School: Category B 3rd place.
 Mrs Andy Magadla, CES of Motheo, with the team and
Mrs L van Waltsleben.

The teacher, Mr TZ Tshabangu, from Senakangwedi 
Secondary School received science apparatus for his
school as category A winner from Miss Lizanne
Boshoff of Lasec Laboratories.

The teacher, Mrs M Stoltz, from Grey College
received science apparatus for her
school as category B winner from Miss Lizanne
Boshoff of Lasec Laboratories.

Provincial Finals of the Physical Science Quiz Grade 10: Saturday Programme

Teams of Fezile Dabi received their gifts
from Mrs N Nthontho 

Each team member and the teacher received a book titled "How do you explain that?" and learners also received certificates of participation.

Teams of Fezile Dabi received their gifts
from Mrs N Nthontho

Teams of Lewjeleputswa received their
gifts from Mrs B Manchu

Teams of Lewjeleputswa received their
gifts from Mrs B Manchu

Teams of Lewjeleputswa received their
gifts from Mrs B Manchu

Teams of Motheo received their
gifts from Mrs E Malahlela

Teams of Motheo received their
gifts from Mrs E Malahlela

Teams of Motheo received their
gifts from Mrs E Malahlela

Teams of Thabo Mofutsanyana received
their gifts from Mrs M Zapi

Teams of Thabo Mofutsanyana received
their gifts from Mrs M Zapi

Teams of Thabo Mofutsanyana received
their gifts from Mrs M Zapi

Teams of Xhariep received
their gifts from Mr M Lethena

Mrs Andy Magadla, CES of Motheo, received her

book from Mr Henry Welman, Dr Angela Stott

received her book from Miss Janetta Nel, while

Dr Nicolaas Luwes received a book from

Mrs B Manchu.

Each team received a mechanics kit from the
FSDE. 

Provincial Finals of the Physical Science Quiz Grade 10: Saturday Programme

A visit to Naval Hill Planetarium and the Mandela Statue.

A motivational talk by Dr Angela Stott.
Title: Manipulating the Matthew Effect.

Refreshments!

Prize-giving handled by Mr. Henry Welman and
Me Janetta Nel.

Mr Marnus Kleinhans, Me Janetta Nel and Mr Henry Welman

Provincial Finals of the Physical Science Quiz Grade 10: Friday Programme

The provincial finals of the Free State physical science quiz for grade 10 took place on Friday 12 October 2018.

Venue: STEM Auditorium, CUT, Bloemfontein

The quiz was hosted by Dr Angela Stott who used Plickers
as response mechanism. 

Learners had to answer individual questions as well.

Our teachers enjoyed watching their learners taking part in
the quiz.

Dr. Nicolaas Luwes of electric engineering gave an
interesting speech.

Google will shut down Google+ after a bug. Many of the users of this website have Google Plus profiles and it is probably better to delete your Google+ profile before the service will be shut down. Click here for an article on how to do it, or search for other articles that can help you.

National Teaching Awards: Free State Winner

Congratulations to Mrs Marisa Smit of Jim Fouché Secondary School in Bloemfontein. She is the Free State winner of the National Teaching Awards in the category Excellence in Physical Science Teaching FET.

Congratulations Mrs Smit and best wishes for the national competition.