Tangible Africa is shaping Africa’s future leaders at the Robben Island Museum’s annual Spring School programme, hosted this week on Robben Island in Cape Town.
It is the first time that Tangible Africa, an engagement project of Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation non-profit organisation based in Gqeberha, has been invited to partner with this flagship youth development programme, which has been running at the Robben Island Museum since 1998.
Over 70 high school learners in grades 10 and 11 from African countries including South Africa, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, are attending the programme aimed at nurturing a new generation of heritage activists. This year’s theme is “Youth-Driven Innovation: Pioneering Sustainable Development in Africa, Celebrating 30 Years of South African Democracy,” which focuses on leveraging youth innovation for sustainable growth. Tangible Africa Project Coordinator, Lizwi Gwaza, explains that in addition to activities like the Prison Experience, which takes the learners on a day in the life of a political prisoner, the learners could also select various learning areas to participate in the week. These include agriculture science, heritage workshops, business innovation, debating, journalism and interaction with former political prisoners on umrhabulo and integrational dialogue sessions.
“For the computer education learning area, I am facilitating learners from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa to learn about design thinking. They identify problems in their countries, provinces or communities and then come up with an innovative app to solve the problem,” said Gwaza.
Gwaza will also introduce the learners to RANGERS, one of the tangible coding games that Tangible Africa is using to teach and encourage computational thinking and problem-solving skills across Africa.
Tangible Africa Founder and Head of the Department and Associate Professor at the Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department, Prof Jean Greyling, said the Tangible Africa team has been pleasantly surprised with the way countries across Africa have embraced the coding movement.
“Across Africa tangible coding is accepted by numerous role players in countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda. Libraries, especially in many of these countries, have proven to be very effective in introducing coding in their communities. One African country is currently exploring incorporating Tangible Africa’s material in official teacher training, said Greyling.
The team also experienced an encouraging uptake in rolling out tangible coding in Indonesia and Europe. The project team has recently returned from the USA, where various role players have shown a keen interest in rolling it out in schools. It is, for example, seen as complementary to the tools provided by the globally known movement Code.Org
Plenty Orange
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”
Silver Rose
Boet – brother. This term is usually used in reference to a male friend or companion.Example: “Hey my boet, see you at the game tonight!”