The Joys of Science

I had some pie in the sky dreams about teaching in Namibia while I was still stateside. Between national exams, ridiculous syllabi, daily lesson preparation forms, and mountains of paperwork, I've lost a lot of my initial enthusiasm for teaching. There's just too much in the way of actual education. It seems that having your five teaching files and every lesson preparation form is more important than time in class because when the inspectors come that's what they look for, the paperwork that says you've been teaching.

I've been able to rekindle that small flame of excitement this term by starting a science club. I wonder why I didn't start this earlier, it's been absolutely amazing. The impetus for starting was a small telescope my parents brought back in December. During the last term I got bored one afternoon with paperwork, gathered some learners, and finally built the damn thing. It was fun to talk about lenses and light being a wave, but telescopes are meant for the night sky.

I took the top five boys and girls from my physical science class and we started meeting Mondays after school. We discussed things like earthquakes and planets. I also showed them this video and after a bit of explaining and rewinding they understood what they were seeing. Jaws dropped in disbelief. Is the universe really that big? Yes, it is really that big and we're really that small.

It took a bit of planning, but a couple of weeks ago we had our first telescope sleepover at school. It was a great night with a beautiful half moon that illuminated the first half of the night before dipping below the horizon allowing us to see the deep sky in all its power. We cooked some macaroni and fish for dinner which is considered a treat by these habitual porridge eaters. After dinner we aimed our sights at the moon. The kids responses were priceless as they peered through the eye piece for the first time; "Kalunga kange! (My God!)" and "Iyaloo! (Thank you!)" We could clearly see many features on the surface of the moon.

Then the questions started, what is the moon made out of, what are those dark spots, what makes them, who made the moon? Students' questions are what make me enjoy being a teacher. In class these kids are so tight lipped, partly it's cultural though, you can't question someone elder than you. But once you get them out of the classroom and thinking, they just won't stop. We drew lots of pictures in the sand and even made our own tiny craters.

We then took a trip to the rings of Saturn, the jewel of our solar system in my humble opinion. Again the questions came, what's Saturn made of, how far away is it, what's that ring I see, are there people on Saturn? Their unbridled energy and curiosity made me beam, I just couldn't stop smiling. We went back inside to watch Star Wars Episode V and sleep for a bit on our makeshift beds.

At 3AM my alarm went off, Jupiter was on the rise, and I went outside to set up the telescope. I returned and quietly announced that if you want to see Jupiter, you could come outside now. The whole room burst into activity, it was as if no one was sleeping to begin with. Three moons of Jupiter were visible and we could make out some details like the stripes of Jupiter. This time the questions got a bit deeper, where did the sun come from, where did all the atoms come from? I tried my best to explain the collapse of interstellar gas clouds, the big bang, and nucleosynthesis. It's all pretty heavy stuff for kids in secondary school with less than stellar English abilities. I think they got the gist of it though.

Now that the moon had set, we were free to gaze into the sky with almost no light pollution. The Milky Way really comes alive once you give your eyes twenty minutes or so to adjust. The southern sky is just so beautiful, these kids don't know how good they have it. I eventually brought out my camera and we did some astrophotography. It's amazing how stars and nebulae just pop out of dark patches of the sky. It gave the kids a real sense of just how big the universe is.

The kids were just too amped to go back to sleep so we watched Star Wars Episode VI and eventually saw the sunrise. We took a group photo before dispersing. I really want to do this again, maybe with a new group of kids though.


Next week there is a science fair in Okalongo. We had been discussing what to do since I knew this would be coming up this term. We're going to be making some batteries out of local materials. We generated 0.4V today with just coca cola, aluminum and copper. Tomorrow the real experiments begin as we try different materials and solutions. Electrochemistry is sweet, I hope the judges think so too. I'll let you know how it goes next week. Until next time, oto twii mono nale!