Position South African girls for Success in iSTEAM

I AM SCIENCE PROJECT

As an all girls iSTEAM school it was a great opportunity to have the project of our school. As Molo Mhlaba plans on teaching girls about science so that in the future they can choose science as their careers and bridge the gap of lack of black women in science careers.

The project was an eye opener for the teacher as it demonstrated different ways teachers could make science fun and interesting for the students. The projects shows that teaching science doesn’t have to be taught like all the other subjects as learners learn more in science through practical work and experiments.

All of the girls at the school come from public primary schools in Khayelitsha and science is no different from other subjects at the schools’ they are coming from. Some have never seen any science experiments, the only girls who were ever exposed to science were the ones that were part of Thope foundation which is an after school programme. Spending the three days with Victoria was one of their best experiences. This opened eyes for them and made them think further, some of them already see themselves as young scientists. The talent show was one of the highlights as they had to show what they learnt to other children with the same age as them. It was a great platform for them to see how confident they are in front of large crowds.

The team plans continuing sharing their knowledge with other schools as we plan to go to a few schools around Khayelitsha to do science shows. So that other students at the schools can also gain from the project is well. Since most schools cannot afford to buy the materials needed for some of the experiments, this will make more female students interested in science and perhaps in future they will pursue careers in science.