Ivory Park educator shares US space experience

Four teachers from the township primary schools left the country for an educational camp at the US Space and Rocket Centre in the United States on July 5 and returned on July 12.

The programme was born out of a partnership between the Gauteng Department of Education and the engineering company Honeywell SA.

Among the four was Ivory Park-based primary school teacher Saraphine Kekana.

The Mikateka Primary School teacher says the educational trip was aimed at promoting the subjects of mathematics and science. It also focused on the social cohesion needed to work in the huge aerospace industry.

Kekana said they arrived at the University of Huntsville Alabama North Campus, in the State of Alabama, where they met teachers from countries such as Belgium, Costa Rica, Germany and New Zealand.

“We had speakers from NASA, and we went to the museum where they put all the spaceships after testing,” said Kekana.

Kekana said that through their interaction with teachers from other countries, they realised those countries’ schools are going digital and have fewer learners in class.

“Going to the camp meant a lot because we also learnt that in the period of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, teachers will also have to adapt to the shift so they can be better educators, mostly in technology and science,” said Kekana.

Kekana also shared the fun parts of the trips.

“We had two missions to complete. In mission one we had to move from station to station in the simulators and in mission two we had to simulate landing on Mars.

“What I have learnt is that you have to be familiar with the American terms. I had to explain what a diary is, only to find out they call it a journal. We also learnt that when you are in space you have to keep on exercising,” said Kekana.

Mandla Sibanyoni, Mikateka Primary’s principal, said the government’s duties are to form concrete relationships with relevant stakeholders to better the country’s education.

“The Department of Education forms partnerships with companies and what we have to do as teachers is to put what we have learnt into practice,” said Sibanyoni.

Sibanyoni congratulated Kekana on the educational trip to the space camp.

“We now believe that the learners will be guided into building an advanced rocket to show to the relevant stakeholders that we have grasped something from the trip,” said Sibanyoni.

“We received computers on Mandela Day, which will advance the learners’s research. We will also need them to look into Fourth Industrial Revolution careers. Our learners will have to do robotics, computer programming and software development in the future,” said Sibanyoni.