Schools equipped for ant hunt
2006-07-20
TWO local schools, Groendal Secondary in Franschhoek and Weltevrede Secondary in Wellington, recently received a microscope and a computer each.
This was thanks to a generous grant from a UK grants programme, the Darwin Initiative, and a partnership between the Universities of Stellenbosch and Sheffield.
The equipment will be put to use as part of the participation of the two schools in the Iimbovane: Exploring South African Biodiversity and Change outreach project.
Iimbovane (meaning ants in isiXhosa), is an environmental education programme designed to help life science teachers implement the National Curriculum Statement in their teaching programmes.
This project is driven by the University of Sheffield and the Centre of Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University.
It uses ants to inspire Grade 10 science learners from ten selected Western Cape schools to investigate the wonders of our biodiversity as well as career options in natural sciences.
To interest learners from Franschhoek and Wellington in aspects of biodiversity, they use a simple protocol at sites close to the two schools, to investigate differences in ant diversity between natural and transformed landscapes, as well as changes in ant groupings between locations and between seasons and years.
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