GEORGE NEWS - More than 600 school children and 79 educators partook in projects and walkabouts in the Garden Route Botanical Garden during National Science Week (7 - 11 August).
This number is above the projected attendance required by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (Saasta), and attests to the success of the project.
At the garden's new Science and Environmental Centre, a group of experts gave talks and practical demonstrations about the environment.
Among them was Mossel Bay geological expert, Dr Peter Nilssen, who spoke about the archaeological research discoveries dating back to the ice- and stone age.
Educational talks were also given by Gibbs Kuguru of White Shark Africa (and a few interns) on Shark Conservation; birding expert Peter Ginn, local wildlife photographer Colin Ralston and astronomer Case Rijsdijk. George Museum Manager Lorrinda Hakimi spoke about "Soil is Life", Priscilla Burgoyne about microscopes and classification activity, and Karen Claxton gave a talk about people's responsibility to the natural environment.
Spekbos plants
The Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR) Board in the Little Karoo delegated three members to participate in the programme - Mary Carr, Luami Zondagh and André Britz, who engaged the children in planting spekboom in tins as part of the Jobs for Carbon Project in the GCBR.
During the local celebrations of National Science Week, Luami Zondagh (right) used models and visual charts to enlighten the learners on the scarcity of clean water, globally and in the region. The youngsters were visibly shocked at learning just how limited water resources are in reality.
The learners enthusiastically helped prepare spekboom slips for planting. They took great care and pride in the process and at the end of each day, hundreds of youngsters would descend on their favourite oom to collect their precious little trees to take home.
Monica Vaccaro from the Landmark Foundation led groups of youngsters into the forest to teach them "ecological intelligence", i.e. how to use all their senses to recognise natural patterns and processes in nature that sustain the forest ecosystem. Several youngsters were proud to have pulled out alien invasive wattle saplings along the way.
The children left bright-eyed and inspired after benefiting from a stimulating and informative four-day programme, which was coordinated by members of the Eden branch of the Wildlife and Environmental Society of SA. Coordinator Annemarie Gebhardt said the week was "a great achievement", with six schools and one home-school group attending.
National Science Week was funded by Saasta. Gebhardt thanked Priscilla Burgoyne, who applied for this funding, and Karen Claxton, who coordinated and administrated all the events and transport.
ARTICLE & PHOTOS: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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