Marianne Merten
How do you make mathematics and science relevant to youngsters? At the MTN ScienCentre that’s easy: through interactive displays, maths sleep-overs and workshops where children can build their own electronic burglar alarm or explore polymer chemistry by making slime, rubber balls and foam.
The MTN ScienCentre hopes to demystify science by encouraging innovation and curiosity. Mathematics and science are brought into the everyday world in a “down-to-earth, fun venue”, according to MTN ScienCentres head Professor Mike Bruton.
The first MTN ScienCentre was opened less than a year ago at the Century City shopping mall in Cape Town. Two more centres will soon open in Umhlanga and Pretoria.
The basic message that science and maths are relevant to everyone’s daily life is applied in the ScienCentre’s many educational programmes. Youngsters who attend a maths workshop are asked to calculate the number of bricks used to build the shopping centre.
The recently held international technology Olympiad had grade 10 to 12 pupils from 1700 schools design a transport mechanism to rescue people trapped on an island in a flooded river. Labour and materials had to be local and the mechanisms had to be environmentally friendly.
The idea of the ScienCentre started with a science village leased from France and exhibited at the V&A Waterfront three times longer than expected. Bruton jokes that he received “hate letters from parents” after the French finally demanded the return of the exhibit.
MTN was approached to sponsor a permanent interactive science centre. Within two months the company was onboard and a while later 10-year leases were signed and funds committed for the first centre.
The centre and the underlying philosophy also have the firm backing of the government. And the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology is close to completing a similar countrywide network of science discovery institutions, based on this model.
Key to the MTN ScienCentre’s success is a people-focused approach. At the interactive centre supervisors can explain why the plastic balloon hovering over an air stream outlet pipe is staying in the air. Others will lead groups through the displays.
Children explore the interactive centre and participate in workshops as teams. The basic principle is based on educational findings that by doing things, children retain more knowledge than by merely listening to someone.
In addition staff take travelling displays to other science exhibitions, community events and even agricultural shows.
The MTN ScienCentre helps South African tertiary education institutions in setting up similar initiatives, but it also has close collaborative links with 30 science centres around the world.
The Cape Town venue itself also houses Tech-Know-Alley, a science and maths teachers’ training organisation, and a computer centre that is already is booked for 300 days next year.