PARADISE – On May 6 and 7, the St Dominic’s Newcastle Matric Life Science learners, together with Mrs Raghoo and Mrs Louw, embarked on a tour to the Cradle of Mankind and Maropeng.
The focus of the tour was to gain more insight about fossils such as Australopithecus Africanus, Homo Habilis to Homo Erectus and fossil discoveries like Little Foot and Mrs Ples, discovered by Dr Robert Broom in 1947 in the Sterkfontein Caves.
A boat ride took learners ‘through time’ from the Ice Age to the Continental Drift to the present day.
Thereafter, the Vortex – an incredible experience of dizziness while standing still – and then onto the museum with loads of information, games and telephone calls to the dodo, quagga, rhino and mammoth about becoming extinct.
The tour ended with a visit to the Sterkfontein Caves, descending 60 metres below ground down 249 steps and ascending another 200-odd steps.
“An amazing experience to witness how the palaeontologists and archaeologists manoeuvre through minute cracks in the rock and down to no man’s land to discover evolution to its fullest. A wonderful, educational tour,” learners commented upon their return.
