Building Bridges in Mamelodi

Finding strong skills in science and technology continues to be a challenge for most countries including South Africa.  Higher education here has a drop out rate of 45%.  We wanted to spend some time at a local school to promote science with young kids and even show them how fun it can be.  So we headed out to a primary and middle school in Mamelodi called Pfunzo Ndi Tshedza which means 'Education is the Light'.  The principal and educators there are so inspiring - 40 teachers for 1600 children.  They are determined to raise the next generation of citizens who will help transform South Africa.  Several girls welcomed us into the school with a surprise song and dance number.

We leveraged a TryScience experiment to build bridges out of spaghetti and marshmallows.  Once built, the students tested the strength of their bridges by slowing placing nickels on then.  It's always fun to see the reactions on their faces as they drop in each coin - hoping their bridge doesn't break.  The Pretoria News (the local daily newspaper here) even ran an article on it today.  After the experiment, we helped serve lunches to the students.  Mamelodi has some of the poorest of the poor and for many kids, this will be their only meal of the day.

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