Richtersveld Science Week 2015

This year we marked the 10^th year of the Council for Geoscience Field School with our 2^nd Richtersveld Science Week. This year we aimed high, visiting three schools within the Richtersveld region. These included; the Stephen Malherbe Laerskool in Eksteenfontein, the Johan Hein Laerskool in Kuboes and the Hoerskool Alexander Bay.

The location of these schools, especially the primary schools, in the furthest north western region of South Africa has resulted in them being largely isolated and almost forgotten. Many of these scholars face a dire future, with few opportunities and even lesser support. Despite this, the exemplary commitment shown by the teaching staff at these schools is inspirational. As such the Field School team has felt obliged to try and give something back to these communities. After all, these communities have warmly welcomed and supported us for our many years of visiting and performing our research.

The Science Week programme closely followed the school curriculum. For the primary schools, this broadly consisted of a lecture series focussing on the solar system, space travel and the life of a geoscientist. We also ran a volcano and river system experiment much to the delight of the students. For the high school, we placed a strong emphasis on possible bursary and scholarship opportunities, as well as information about subject choices and grades required for university entry. We also had special lectures by other young geoscientists and some of our very own field school participants.

An extra special surprise for all the schools this year was the donation of GIS-ready desktop computers. Nine computers were very generously donated by the Council for Geoscience and prepared by our ITC department. Most were equipped with GPU’s and had various open source software installed. This included; Quantum GIS, Stellarium, GIMP, Inkscape, Open Office and Google Earth. In addition, various spatial data was copied onto these machines, including; SPOT, Landsat and CGS Geological Data. Brief training sessions were held with the teaching staff, equipping them with knowledge to share with the scholars.

We hope that these computers will allow the scholars an opportunity to gain early PC literacy, especially understanding the ins and outs of GIS. It cannot be perceived where this kind of advantage could lead. We may have South Africa’s next top scientist coming from the Richtersveld!

2014 Diary: Day 18 - Exit, pursued by a Bear

Goodbye Sendelingsdrift! The team finally departed our favourite trans-frontier National Park amid sunshine and cloudy skies. This mixture of light and dramatically rugged mountains provided a grand scene for our exit. In fact, the beauty was way too intense to be photographed! Our final order of business in this region was to once more visit the Johan Hein School in Kuboes. Here we had an official hand over of some school equipment (pens, pencils, erasers, bags, etc – Thank you Council for Geoscience, may you always remember the less fortunate and continue to strive in upliftment and development).

Top: View of Kuboes, Bottom: Nick explaining Kate's groundwater poster and Tshimane performing an official hand over of the poster and school supplies to Mr de Wet

 As mentioned in earlier posts, groundwater is essential to the survival of much of these communities, however is rather poorly understood. Information on groundwater stems from years of natural understanding, however with factors such as climate change and the changing in the intensity of weather patterns, it would be highly beneficial for these communities to be informed on these factors. This may potentially aid in sustainability and avoid vulnerability of the largely herding community.  With this in mind, one of our expert hydrogeologists, and fellow Richtersveld mapping geologist class of 2009, Miss Kate Robey produced an immaculate poster highlighting groundwater and its relationship with the surrounding geology. These posters were really welcomed and received by a senior staff member, Mr de Wet. It is envisioned that this simple gesture of information sharing may spark the hunt toward understanding a changing climate and how we might have to evolve as consequence to it. This also ended the Richtersveld Science Week! During this time we managed to have a townhall meeting in Eksteenfontein, also meeting/workshop with the local educators; school lecture in Kuboes and once more meeting/workshop with the educators. We were also fortunate to create several information posters and hand over some stationary and teaching aids. This is a minor step toward something we hope could grow into a larger outreach programme. Once more, if there are any suggestions, comments or if you would like to be involved, please do not hesitate to contact us (tdhansay@geoscience.org.za).