High School Bright Spark Memories

SAIAB BRIGHT SPARKS TOUR

In 2009, when I was grade 10 at Nathaniel Nyaluza I entered a bright sparks club competition from the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB). This was a very big competition as it consisted of over one hundred participants from 5 different schools- Nathaniel Nyaluza,Nombulelo, Marry Waters, Ntsika Secondary and Hendrick Kanise.
Our task was to write a Climate Change essay 800-1200 words. The following step 2- only 10 essays were shortlisted in each school. Step 3- shortlisted essays were shorlisted again by SAIAB and DoE represantatives. Step 4- the shorlisted candidates made a presantation of their essays to SAIAB and DoE representatives. Last step- finalists wrote a Science knowledge test that consisted of Mathematics, Physical Science and Life Sciences. Then, top ten leaners were selected for a Grand prise- A National Tour to Gauteng Province.

The tour was so full of fun and lots of learning.
This was my report after the tour:

Day1

In the first day when we went to Gauteng was like a dream coming true to me. The journey was very long but some of us made it very short because all the way we were debating. We finally arrived at Pretoria at National Zoological Gardens (NZG) where we were warmly welcomed by Pharks our host for that weekend to the cable cage ride. It was very scarring and also very fun. He showed us some overview of Pretoria and told us a little bit a brief history of the Zoo.

We went to the night tour and our guide was Willem. We saw animals like Elephants, Lions, Rhino, Seals, Kudu, Bears, etc.

After that we discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of the animals being kept in the Zoo.

Day2

We went to the Tswaing crater Museum and our guide was Mr. Simon a real environmentalist, when he saw a paper he just pick it up and that really taught us that picking up a paper begins with you. We learnt more about meteorites and Tswaing was hit by meteorite impact.

The crater is 100 meters high. These hills are the walls of an impact crater left by an asteroid which hit there some 200 000 years ago. The Tswaing crater is similar in size to the well-known Barringer meteor crater in Arizona. The crater walls at Tswaing were originally about twice as high as they are today.

Drilling in the crater has shown that the rocks forming it have been shocked by an explosion, and are not volcanic in origin. In the explosion that formed the crater the incoming object would have been largely vaporised - there is no large buried object in or under the crater. The absence of such a buried object at the Barringer crater in Arizona caused confusion as to its origins for many years, although in that case traces of the original iron asteroid have been found.

We went to the union buildings after we came from Tswaing crater Museum. We took photos there and we were so happy to see Union buildings.

Day3

We went to South African Nuclear Corporations (NECSA). At NECSA they do use the radiation for the Medical purposes, Therapeutic and diagnoses purposes. The presentation was done by Mr. G and Ms. Zamazizi Dlamini. We learnt that radio activity is all around us and this means that everything around us is radioactive to a greater or lesser degree. Plants, water, rocks, even the air we breathe - everything contains radioactive substances. This has been so since the creation of the universe. Radiation even reaches us from outer space.

We also learnt about Ionising radiation, that is the rays of the sun transfer energy in the form of heat. Radioactive rays also transfer energy. When these energetic rays pass through matter, they collide with atoms or molecules and transfer part of their energy to them: an electron is knocked off an atom, or an atom or a molecule absorbs an electron. In this way an electrically charged atom or molecule, an ion, comes into being. This phenomenon is called ionisation.

We also learnt about fission that is nuclear reaction in which a massive nucleus splits into smaller nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy.

We went to the SAFARI side where we saw the reactor and where there are Physicists working there, Operators and Technicians. The nuclear reactor is an apparatus that maintain and control a nuclear reaction for the production of energy or artificial elements.

The reactor temperature of the reactor is about 200 °C inside and the water is blue. We were given careers and opportunities at NECSA. You can be a Scientist, Engineer, Technician and Medical Physicists.

Afterwards we went to see the Zoo director Dr Nxomani. He is a very down to earth guy and he is coming from the Eastern Cape in Peddie. He did a Micro-Biology and biochemistry and did a micro-Biology at Rhodes University. He worked for 3 years at SAIAB and moved to Pretoria and worked for the NRF research company and in 1998 he became a managing director of the NZG Zoo.

We went to the Transvaal Museum and unfortunately person who was suppose to be our guide was already left then. We looked around and we took photos and left.

Day4

We went to Wits Origin Centre and our guide was Jordan. When we went inside at Wits Origin Centre Ms. Jordan showed us the Yellow-wood tree which is a National tree of South Africa. There is also a Podia tree which is very special because when you are hungry you can just chew it and you won’t be hungry. We learnt more about the cradle of human kind and where people originated. We also learned about the stone ages. We learned about history of the art. The discovery of the skulls, Australopithecus and the San people was the most things we learnt about.

We went to the planetarium where we learnt about the Stars, Moons, Our galaxy and birth and death of the stars. We leant things that we didn’t know about our solar system like there are Asteroids moving around our solar system. We also learnt about Dwarf planets and what the Astronomers use to observe the planets and how that is important to do so. They also predict when is a star going to die.

We went to HartRAO and our guide was Mr. Sam Rametse. At HartRAO the do a radio astronomy and what they do is very similar at what we learnt at Planetarium. Sam showed us the sun dial. The sun dial simply tells a clock. They designed the sun dial for the Southern African Countries in order to know what the time is. We then went inside and watched a video which was telling us about the Universe, when sun is going to die and what will happen to earth when the Asteroids fall into the planet Earth. We then played a Rocket game which was very challenging and interesting. We played again a whispering dish, where you whisper to someone who is at the other dish and what you say is transferred by waves and when people stand in-between the dished they can hear all the conversation.

Day5

We went to South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA). Our guide was Thembi. We also did a bit of Astronomy and we learnt about our milky way and we live in the Orion Spur Arm. We also learned about the principle of Mirror that you see things in the opposite direction. We played few games and Sis’ Thembi was motivating us to keep studying and don’t chase after girls/boys. She really put sense in our minds and she changed the ways we saw things in life and in general.

After SAASTA we went to the NRF and we had a lunch with the communications manager of NRF Mr. Kiru Naidoo and a Media co-ordinator Tracey Miller. Tracy brought up a topic of Mxit. We discussed the Advantages and disadvantages of having Mxit. One of the advantages of having Mxit in your phone is you talks with you friends for less and it’s informative. The disadvantage of having Mxit is you might get addicted and people will ask for your photo and afterwards that person do something bad to you. We even discussed about climate change and its effects. The lunch was very nice and everyone enjoyed their selves.

We went to the Zoo afterwards and had a braai. We had a fabulous evening and we enjoyed ourselves. Our host of the whole tour Mr. Ureg came to say farewell to us.

Day6

We went to Sterkfontain Caves where we went 64m under ground. We learnt more about Rocks and cradle of human kind. We learnt about dolerites, Anthropoids. It was very scary to be inside the cave, it was very dark but fun anyway.

We went to Maropeng where we had fun as well. We leant more about extinct animals like Kuaga, Dodo etc. we played many games and we went to the boat ride where we saw Ice inside the cave, Volcanoes eruptions, lightning and rain as well. That was a great experience and was a life time experience.

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Posted: February 4th 2013 06:22