Gail Peiterson – Punahou School
TWBSA – 2010
Eastern Cape – South Africa

“I THOUGHT I COULD NOT teach science because I did not have a laboratory or equipment, but now I am empowered to teach with the things in my everyday life.”

“We have no excuses now; we must teach our learners, science. ”

These were words that made the hours of preparation and days of travel worth it all….

As I worked with my fellow educators in Hawaii, discussing and preparing for our trip to South Africa, I knew that the lack of equipment is one of the biggest challenges our colleagues in South Africa face every day. Friends and fellow teachers who conducted previous workshops encouraged me to share labs and activities that use free or inexpensive supplies as science equipment.

With a suitcase of string, tape, recycled communion cups, balloons, straws and food coloring as a few of the tricks of the trade, the adventure started half a world away. Till departure day, I was packing and repacking, to stuff as much as possible in the “science bag” not knowing what would be available in the stores in rural South Africa.

FAST FORWARD…… safe arrival in Port Shepstone, Kwa Zulu – getting in the right time zone and watching a few world cup games…. and here we go!

The first workshop participants were subject area supervisors who would be conducting workshops in their districts in the coming weeks. This time was spent sharing ideas and learning more about the needs of districts. The sharing of ideas was wonderful: the spontaneous interaction among participants who would take a lesson we were sharing and run with it and begin to share the ways they teach a given concept ; It was as refreshing and similar to most professional development conferences in the US. Lessons spilled over into tea and lunch and into the afternoon. The week flew by but we left feeling confident that the subject area supervisors would be prepared to conduct their own workshops in the future.

Packing our bags and supplies like a circus caravan we head off for our next destination. The next workshop was held at ThembalaBantu High School in King Williams Town. The classrooms gave us a real picture of the conditions that our South African colleagues face each day in rural schools. While teaching the concept of air pressure and gas laws, I encouraged the group to be the students, get out from behind their desk, move to different stations, both inside and outside the classroom ; and try to figure out the concepts through the demonstrations and mini labs. By having the students rotate to different areas, they were able to work in small groups and not only reduce the need for class sets of equipment but also collaborate on the outcomes. By modeling this type of classroom activity and using everyday items, we DID science without costly equipment and reached our learning objectives.
One of my favorite labs involves the use of red cabbage as an acid/base indicator to test the pH of household items. Using yogurt cups, disposable communion cups, straws and red cabbage, samples of foods and cleaning products, we were able to test and develop ideas about acids and bases and the trends they follow. I have taught this lab for years but I brought home many ideas from my fellow teachers and I have already incorporated them into my classes at Punahou this year. I enjoy showing my students the pictures of teachers doing the same lab that they are doing – half way around the globe.

I think the Workshops offer the opportunity for teachers to meet their colleagues in a nonthreatening, encouraging setting. As teachers experience more labs and use more non-traditional equipment, they will be able to increase the number of labs that they are able to share with their learners. As they teachers expand their horizons of “laboratory equipment” they will be surprised at the changes they see in their classes and their learners’ success.

I shared a story about passing a young boy at Coffee Bay, heading to the ocean with a plastic liter bottle and a “slurp gun” (tube for suctioning up crustaceans from the bay). An hour later as I headed down hill, he was on his way home with a bottle full of shrimp for dinner.

We talked how that young man knew more “science” about that area than I did, and he was able to use his daily knowledge of tides and weather and the habitat of his native animals to provide for his family. No one ever taught him that as a science lesson – but I am sure the elderly gentleman that was with him had taken him to the ocean for many years. If he was made aware of his use of science to catch dinner, he might be a more engaged learner and see the connections in his everyday life in the world around him, and in the world of science.

Like the little boy I passed heading to catch shrimp for his supper, the teachers of South Africa are surrounded with opportunities daily to make their science classrooms relevant to the daily lives of their students. I believe that by sharing with them our experiences and allowing them a forum to meet and share with each other, the learners of tomorrow will be the beneficiaries from this collaboration.

The picture of the blackboard at the end of the day says it all….. There are the notes of an acid/base lab, Bev’s proverb of the day in Hawaiian and an indigenous African Language proverb that translates “One hand needs another to wash.”

In our interactions with others in our own schools, community, or across the globe, the more we share and spend time listening to each other, the more we learn about ourselves and what we are capable of doing.

Thanks Yunus for the opportunity to learn and grow in South Africa in the summer of 2010.

Aloha Gail Peiterson – Hawaii