Radio broadcasts: Lesedi FM & Community Stations

Lesedi FM and the community radio stations in the Free State will broadcast support programmes for grade 12 learners, starting on the 6th of April.

The broadcast schedules are as follows (if opening or saving the pdf files are problematic, use another browser; I did not experience problems with Chrome and Firefox):
Lesedi FM
Community stations

Openview TV Support Programmes

The Department of Basic Education will be broadcasting educational support for learners and teachers on the Openview platform for grades 10, 11 and 12. This channel is available free of any subscriptions.




The broadcast schedule (two versions) is as follows:
Version 1
Version 2

WhatsApp and online teaching

The availability of smartphones, tablets and computers, as well as data, are obviously the biggest problems to overcome for many learners in South Africa in order to access online teaching and learning. Nevertheless, we have to strive to a dispensation where this becomes better and better. Will we have public WiFi points, with a useful quota of data per device per day, at some stage in the Free State to support the vulnerable learners?

Nevertheless, let's dedicate this post to WhatsApp and its uses in teaching.

Six ways to use WhatsApp in education is a video with good ideas. Sign in to Adele's YouTube channel for more.

While on WhatsApp, here are articles with useful tips:

• What is the difference between a group and a broadcast?
• WhatsApp broadcast: What do you need to know?
• Muting of notifications and other cool tricks.
• 21 WhatsApp tricks
• Six useful forward WhatsApp tricks

Covid-19: A scientific foundation by Morris Madzime

One of our Free State teachers,
Mr Morris Madzime, has recently worked flat out to produce a well-researched review on Covid-19. 

The aim was to make it accessible to the general public but to balance it with scientific facts. Science should be the lodestone in the whole debate; not the social media noise around Covid-19.

Mr Madzime is teaching physical sciences and mathematics at Relekile Secondary School in Hoopstad/Tikwana. Apart from this noble work, he is studying towards a PhD in the medical sciences. His research is aimed at the interactions of dolutegravir, alone and in combination with other antiretroviral agents, with human neutrophils and platelets in vitro. This basically means that he is looking at the interaction of ARVs with neutrophils (which are innate immune cells) as well as with platelets (which are coagulation cells with well-established interaction with the immune system). The research is aimed at shedding light on the continued morbidity associated with drug toxicity in HIV patients. 

Mr Madzime is busy with two scientific publications and if all goes well, he will DV submit his thesis before June 2021.

I thank Mr Madzime for sharing this article with us and we are very proud to have such a talented teacher in the Free State. Click here to access a pdf copy of the article.

Covid-19 Visualiser

What is the situation with Covid-19 in the world? Here is an interesting visualiser to give an idea. Click here to go the website.

The South African site for Covid-19 information is here.

Lockdown in South Africa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has just announced a 21-day “stay-at-home” whole-country lockdown for South Africa effective from midnight on Thursday 26 March 2020 until midnight on Thursday 16 April 2020.

The full statement of President Ramaphosa, published by Brent Lindique in https://www.goodthingsguy.com is available here and a pdf copy is here.

Covid-19: Prof Anton Stoltz gives valuable advice

Prof. Anton Stoltz, a specialist of infectious diseases, gives valuable advice in the following video.

It is a sober and complete analysis of the new virus. Please, watch and listen with intense attention. Click here to access the video (78MB).

Isaac Newton worked from home too

Schools have closed in South Africa and many other parts of the world due to the Covid-19/Coronavirus outbreak. Our learners here in South Africa are also requested to work on their own to prevent falling behind. 

Here is a wonderful story to motivate everybody. 

In the 14th century, the Black Death, also known as the Great Bubonic Plague, the Great Plague or the Plague, wiped out between 75 to 200 million people in Europa and Asia, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351 in which it is believed that 30% to 60% of the European population was wiped out. 

The disease was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, commonly present in fleas carried by rats and mice. This is a very good reason why we must not have rubbish bags lying in our streets. They attract rats and mice, which endangers everybody due to the possibility of bubonic fever; even today.

Anyway, the plague repeatedly returned to Europe and the UK throughout the 14th to 17th centuries. In London, from 1665 to 1666, the Great Plague caused havoc. 

It was during this period that young Isaac Newton was at university. Due to the seriousness of the disease, "social distancing" was applied and the University of Cambridge sent the students home. Newton went back to his family's estate and it was there where he came up with his theories in mathematics and physics. All by himself, without his professors to guide him. Everybody knows the story of the apple and Newton ...

The Washington Post recently published a wonderful article about Newton and his work at home. It is available here and a pdf version is here. It will hopefully motivate our learners to do their best and to work in their best interest for themselves.

A lot of interesting information is available about the Black Death, the Great Plague, Bubonic plauge, and even Newton's apple tree. To start reading, go here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/plague/symptoms-causes/syc-20351291

https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/tangled-tale-nists-newton-apple-tree (pdf of this is here)

We have come to the end of 2019 and I guess it is an embedded part of human nature to reflect on things of the past and wonder about things of the future.

2019 is over and we cannot change anything anymore. For some, it was a good year in which opportunities and happiness presented themselves. For others, it was a year in which sadness and sorrow were constant companions.

In view of this, I want to wish you, and everybody close to you, everything of the best for 2020. May new horizons unfold and may all your dreams become true. Be kind to yourself and to those close to you; friends included! Enjoy the simple pleasures of life and tackle the responsibilities with energy and a spirit to succeed.

May you discover your hidden potential and convert it into a massive positive effect on other people. I trust that 2020 will be very special for you!

Merry Christmas 2019

We wish all our readers a very special Christmas 2019.

This comes from Miss Janetta Nel, our CES at head office, and the team of subject advisers:

• Fezile Dabi: Mr Motlhoki Seepamore and Mrs Nomgwaqo Nthontho
• Lejweleputswa: Messrs Henry Welman and Motseki Sefo
• Motheo: Mr Bennie Bisschoff, Mrs Emma Malahlela and Mr Marnus Kleinhans
• Thabo Mofutsanyana: Mesdames Busi Manchu, Madewa Zapi and Mr Thabang Ntsie
• Xhariep: Mr Motsie Lethena

Christmas is a time for reflection, for appreciation and for re-commitment. Everything we have and can do is pure grace from Above.

Henry Welman
Acting Provincial Coordinator

Quantitative error analysis data for the 2019 November examinations (grades 10 and 11) are available.

A permanent link to the data is available under "Pages" on the left of the home page. Here is a picture of what you should be looking for.

You can go to the error analysis page by also clicking here. 

World Teachers' Day 2019

https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldteachersday

Error analysis data for September 2019

Quantitative error analysis data for the 2019 September tests and examinations is available.

A permanent link to the data is available under "Pages" on the left of the home page. Here is a picture of what you should be looking for.

You can go to the error analysis page by also clicking here. 

How carbon-14 revolutionised science

We teach our learners about isotopes and one of them is carbon-14. I am pretty certain many teachers also tell their learners about carbon-14 dating. The Guardian has recently published a very user-friendly and interesting article about the history of carbon-14. Click here to go to the page with interesting articles and follow the links from there. We have such appreciation to The Guardian to publish such educational articles.

Dates: September examination and test papers

Dates are available. Look under "Pages" and click the link "Dates: ...". It will take you to a web calendar with dates, including the IBP memo discussions for PhySci and the centralised memo and marking fo TecSci grade 12.

Cell notation: remember the rules to write it down correctly

Remember to make learners aware of the rules to write down the cell notation of a galvanic cell. A permanent link is available under "Pages" (left-hand side of home page); see "Curriculum Guidance" or click here to go to the summary.

Error analysis

Quantitative error analysis data for tests and examinations will be available from now on, starting with March 2019 control tests.

A permanent link to the data is available under "Pages" on the left of the home page. Here is a picture of what you should be looking for.

You can go to the error analysis page by also clicking here. 

Vacancy List 1 of 2019: Promotion Posts

The above-mentioned vacancy list can be downloaded here. Closing date for applications is 18 July 2019.

Einstein's message to a bellboy in 1922

Although Happiness Day was on the 20th of March, this short video (4,25MB) from www.yourdost.com with Einstein's message to a bellboy has a profound message for all of us as well.

Coming from the great Einstein, it is worth thinking about what he said. We live in such a broken reality, attached to so many cosmetic influences, that it is no wonder so few people experience real happiness. What are you going to do about it?

Examination dates for May/June 2019

The final dates for the internal grade 10 to 12 examinations in May/June 2019, and the accompanying broadcast dates for IBP memo discussions are available here. There was a change in the grade 12 examination dates, and the IBP dates have changed as well. Check that you have the correct ones.

Technical science will be written on the same date as physical science in grades 10 and 11; in the case of grade 12 on the same date as physical science paper two.