Otjikoto Mine
The B2Gold Education Centre at the Otjikoto Mine buzzed for two weeks as 66 science teachers from all over the Otjozondjupa Region gave up two days of their holidays to freely explore, engage, and discover.
Brian Jones and his colleagues from the Colorado State University’s Little Shop of Physics gave up their Christmas vacation to run seven workshops to inspire teachers and over 100 learners to explore physics and natural science.
Having studied Namibia’s secondary and new upper primary science curricula and standards, they brought with them hands-on experiment stations out of everyday objects that actively engaged teachers and learners on force, motion, molecules and matter.
Brian said “the enthusiasm and cooperation of the teachers in Namibia is unparalleled and the experience has been nothing short of humbling and educating”.
Each teacher took back to their school a large kit of equipment to empower learners to see the world, and themselves, in a different light through hands-on science.
The programme teaches people that science is something anyone can do, and accomplishes this by allowing youth to act as scientists – to freely explore, engage and discover – finding creative ways to share the wonder of science.
Charles Kabajani, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, who visited one of the learner workshops said “the ministry is prepared and will continue to support initiatives such as the Little Shop of Physics” and that “these type of investments are what corporate entities such as B2Gold and RMB Namibia need to focus on in their social investment efforts in support of existing government plans and projects”.
The workshops were made possible through a collaboration between the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Education, B2Gold Namibia, Colorado State University, the FNB Foundation and RMB Namibia