January 2013
Contents / home
Beijing Science Festival
London, here we come ...
National Science Week gets Italian
Making technology accessible
How to build toys from trash
Speak up young scientists
Natural Science Olympiad winners
Laerskool Lynnwood wins AstroQuiz
Science Communication strategy
Summer School in Nanomedicine
Lights, camera, action!
Forum on stem cell research
What do we know about the universe?
SAASTA marks World Aids Day
Meet Dr Jane Olwoch
Taking science to the people
Young scientists in the bush
Vital role of our oceans
Innovative exhibit draws learners
Earliest known dinosaur discovered
Upcoming events
It's a fact!

Innovative exhibit a drawcard for learners

It is not always the size of an exhibit that counts, but the impact ...

Astronomy SA won an award at this year's Sasol Techno X for their interactive exhibit including four iPads, which was rated the third best of the show. They were competing against more than 120 organisations exhibiting at this event.


Eager young visitors to Sasol Techno X interact with the fascinating information available on Astronomy SA's popular iPad exhibit.
The staff members responsible for the Astronomy SA stand proudly show off their award. They are, from left: Sam Rametse (SKA), Sivuyile Manxoyi, Buzani Khumalo and Thembela Mantungwa (SAAO) and Rianelle van Niekerk, organiser of the festival.

Sasol Techno X is an annual exhibition that focuses on displays, workshops, tours, talks and hands-on activities aimed at enthusing learners, students and the general public about the endless possibilities of science and technology. It is one of the largest science festivals in the country and draws learners and educators from all nine provinces. Sasol Techno X exposes, at a practical level, the many facets of technology and encourages learners to explore the wide range of exciting disciplines and career choices that science, maths and technology offer.

The Astronomy SA exhibition was the result of cooperation between the Square Kilometre Array telescope (SKA), the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

"Our exhibit proved to be very popular with the judges, the public, teachers, guides and learners," says Thembela Mantungwa of SAAO.

The SAAO's outreach department was supported by their facility's mechanical team who assisted with the design of the console for the iPads. Dr Christian Hettlage of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) designed the software and many other colleagues at SAAO lent a hand in one way or another to make the interactive exhibit possible.

Fascinating facts about our solar system

The iPads contain AstroQuiz questions from previous years, translated into isiXhosa and Afrikaans. The translations were done in-house at SAAO; the Afrikaans translations by PhD student Pierre van Heerden and MSc student Rocco Coppejans and the isiXhosa version by Thembela Mantungwa of SAAO.

Once the learners had succeeded in answering all the preset questions correctly, they received a certificate. As fascinating and challenging as the questions were, it seemed that the ultimate reward for the learners for their efforts to understand and answer the questions, was to receive a certificate with their name printed on it. A special thank you goes to Dr Christian Hettlage, who anticipated this reaction and suggested having a printer connected to the iPads.

The solar system weight and age calculator proved popular with the visitors and ensured a huge turnout daily. Learners are generally curious about the planets and knowing how much they would weigh if they were to visit a particular planet, adds to their interest. The iPad applications and platform afforded to us by Sasol Techno X provided an ideal opportunity to expand the learners' imagination about a myriad of aspects pertaining to the planets and other celestial objects.

Another popular edutainment feature were videos by Hectic Nine 9 and visiting astronomer Jari Makinen, which show how telescopes have evolved over the years, highlight careers in astronomy and focus on SALT operations. View the SALT video.

Astronomy apps

Other popular drawcards were astronomy apps from iTunes, like Sky Safari, The Milky Way (a tour of the milky way), and Planets (information about the diameter of each planet, the moons, how hot it is, the mass, how long a day is and how far it is from the sun).

The exhibit was funded by a Programmatic Support Grant Intervention from SAASTA, who manages this Intervention on behalf of the Department of Science and Technology. SAASTA also participated in this year's Techno X event and won two third prizes: Melissa Govender for a workshop she presented and Bafedile Kgwadi for her presentation.

By Thembela Mantungwa, SAAO