The Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) recently launched the Institution’s Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) Club at the Bellville campus.

Mathematics Support Lead and STEM Coordinator, Dr Frikkie George, said the purpose of the establishment of the STEM Club was to contribute to the two dimensions of CPUT’s V2030 – Oneness: creating a community of STEM students with Ubuntu principles, and Smartness: advancing the conceptions of technology.

STEM Club Chairperson Sarah Tshabangu said the purpose of the club was to magnify the Maths and science experiences of the students and to support them by bringing together all the STEM students and providing them with learning spaces such as boot camps.

Her deputy, Mano Tshebeletso, said their aim was to improve the quality of education through involvement in learning spaces, research projects, as well as competitions. “And also [to] invite fields professionals that are STEM related for discussions to promote general awareness and encourage networking. Furthermore, we shall interact, engage, and cooperate with other student support structures at CPUT,” Mano remarked. Fundani CHED University Capacity Development Grant Project Team member, David Haarhoff, said the student support for student success is the key focus of the Fundani CHED at CPUT. Haarhoff said the Student Learning Unit (SLU) located in Fundani CHED houses the STEM Sector, providing Mathematics and Science support for students in different departments at CPUT. The Fundani CHED STEM Club was established in April 2022 to assist with STEM support and to meet one of the imperatives of the UCDG STEM Research Project at CPUT.  “The vision and mission of the STEM Club is to build an inclusive STEM student community, fostering affinity for STEM disciplines, and lowering the STEM attrition rate – especially among students from disadvantaged background,” he said.

George said the launch signals the creation of a safe, fun and brave space for students to express themselves and improve the development of their critical thinking skills of the science and maths concepts they learn in lectures.

The launch included beautiful renditions by the CPUT choir, scientific demonstrations by the students, input from academics from University of the Western Cape, CPUT as well as the Cape Town Science Centre.

“I’m ecstatic with the positive feedback and happy that the day was successful. In terms of our broader goal, this has been a stepping stone in respect of dispelling the notion or stigma attached to STEM subjects. All external partners and internal partners are on board in helping us achieve our goal,” enthused Haarhoff.

Speaking at the event, Fundani CHED Director, Dr Xena Cupido, highlighted the importance of working towards CPUT’s Vision 2030 and STEM pedagogies supporting student success. Cupido’s address also focused on the following topics:

• Move away from student deficit approach
• Toward dialogic approach which engages students and academics in the stem sector
• Processes of co-creating curriculum can be seen as a way of promoting democratic values in higher education
• Drawing upon a democratic approach
• Emphasise that learning is closely connected to the participation, subjectification, and negotiation of meanings.
• Focus on the transference of power, authority and voice to the students in a decolonising university space - working in partnership.

“Student needs access to high-quality STEM learning experiences that affirm their identities as important members of the STEM community who are working to make the world a better place,” said Cupido.

George said the STEM Club will play a very important role in the eventual establishment of STEM Centres at the various campuses of CPUT.  He added that the launch will make the CPUT community aware of the existence of the STEM Club and the opportunity to establish partnerships and networks with external partners.

Haarhoff added that they managed to forge partnerships with stakeholders who committed to “ensuring that they are on board in terms of supporting us to ensure that our goal is achieved”. “This has opened many doors for the STEM Club, and we look forward to working together.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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The Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development’s (CHED) STEM Club magnificently hosted the National Science Week (NSW) event recently.

The purpose of the hybrid event with about 35 attendees, 15 online was to celebrate the Science, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) sector across the University community as this was for the National Science Week. The theme was: Celebrating the role of basic sciences in the modern world. The aim was also to create more awareness in terms of the STEM sector and services offered to students and “how best we could possibly assist students in achieving their goals”.

STEM Coordinator, Dr Frikkie George, said there was a great need to host such events to collaborate, network and encourage students. “The latter is required considering the subject matter of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths”. There was a great turnout of students, an excitement that one cannot express as well as a hunger for assistance in those particular subjects.

“The event was successful; indeed, it is a pity that only a limited number of students could attend due to COVID-19 restrictions. The students were very excited, and the presentations of the guest speakers, Fundani CHED Director, Dr Xena Cupido and Department of Chemistry Lecturer, Dr Elise De Vries, addressed contemporary issues in the STEM field. The organisation and the activities developed smoothly,” added George.

The STEM Club was established in April 2022 and this was its second event. George confirmed that besides celebrating the National Science Week “we aimed to expose the STEM Club to the CPUT community”.  He said the feedback after the event was very positive and gives them the opportunity to spread their footprint at the other CPUT campuses.

For this event, the CPUT STEM Club conducted science-based activities, and focused on the role and value of Science, Technology and Mathematics in celebration of this year’s National Science Week. Students had the opportunity to display various science experiments, engagement from the floor in terms of discussions as well as the panel discussion, discussions from both lecturers as well as students reflecting the importance of the STEM sector at the University.

“The eye-catching and exciting science demonstrations enthralled the imagination of everyone who attended,” George observed.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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There is a significant gap between high school and university mathematics for science and engineering students in South Africa with learners entering institutions of higher education unprepared.

This was one of the crucial findings of a research study presented at the first meeting in 2023, of Universities South Africa’s Teaching and Learning of Mathematics Community of Practice ((TLM CoP).

Exploring the Challenges When Transitioning from High School Mathematics to University Mathematics, the study focused on calculus and trigonometry. Lead Researcher, Dr Frikkie George (left) from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), explained that while the Mathematics Further Education and Training Phase covers ten content areas, (including Algebra, Geometry, and Statistics), trigonometry and differential calculus were chosen because they form the foundation for university mathematics and science courses.

The brief was to “explore the current South African high school mathematics curriculum and the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination reports of the past five years to contribute to the existing literature on school-to-university transition.” Dr George was working with Ms Ekaterina Rzyankina (CPUT), a qualitative data analyst.

Another objective, according to Dr Pragashni Padayachee, Chairperson of the TLM CoP and Senior Lecturer: Mathematics within the Academic Support Programme for Engineering (ASPECT) at the University of Cape Town, was “to inform university mathematics support programmes (tutorial programmes and bridging courses) so that these interventions can be more effective in addressing the school-to-university transition challenges confronting mathematics and science students.”

The researchers have completed Phase One of the study.

Problem statement: High failure rate in first year

Dr George said that while Calculus & Trigonometry are being taught across the grades in the Further Education and Training Phase, it was found that in certain topics, the concepts and skills were similar but differed in the level of difficulty. The research showed that the under preparedness of learners resulted in a high failure rate for first-year university mathematics students enrolled in engineering and science programmes across universities in South Africa.

Said Ms Ekaterina Rzyankina (right): “There is a lot of literature showing that Mathematics is a critical subject in South Africa and that it is difficult for students to cope with high school mathematics. Many high school learners aspire to pursue mathematics-related courses at university, but transitioning from high school mathematics to university mathematics can be challenging.”

This transition, the literature stated, remains unresolved with the gap getting wider. Notwithstanding that the Class of 2022 was the ninth cohort to be exposed to the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS), Rzyankina said they had learnt from existing literature that “there is still a curriculum gap between high school and university mathematics which makes the transition from high school to university difficult. This results in high failure and attrition rates, and low throughputs at universities.”

Dire consequences

This had a range of dire consequences, she said. “If many students take longer to graduate, it means we are spending more to produce one graduate which leaves no room to admit new students into mathematics programmes. Worse still, when students drop out of university, the money invested will never be recovered.”

She added that low throughput rates suggest that the country will continue to have a scarcity of qualified personnel in the critical skills areas of the economy (4IR and 5IR). It also adds to unemployment.

Preliminary findings

Dr George said data gathering in this desktop study had entailed exploring the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination reports, looking at the performance of matriculants over the past four years. “The questions based on calculus and trigonometry were the ones in which candidates performed worst. They did well in the low-order questions but lack high-order thinking skills.”

The findings:

• Overall, the matriculants’ responses suggested a general lack of reading and comprehension skills.
• Many candidates did not understand the vocabulary used in the questions.
• A significant percentage of the 2022 candidates responded adequately to questions that required lower order thinking skills but performed poorly in questions that demanded analytical, evaluative, and problem-solving skills.

Dr George said these findings necessitate that high school teachers use dialogical argumentation in the mathematics classroom. Teachers are urged to use technology, visual demonstrations, practical activities and visualisation to improve learners’ understanding of the subject matter. They are also encouraged to make use of online learning platforms such as YouTube, that offer visual presentations to explain challenging topics.

“These and other intervention strategies should be integrated to improve the conceptual understanding of mathematics topics, a concern pointed out in the NSC diagnostic report,” he told the CoP members, mostly mathematics lecturers.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The literature examined in this desktop study showed that while the current high school mathematics curriculum, based on CAPS, appears to cover a wide range of content areas, it lacks depth in critical content areas of mathematics. The conclusion was that this, therefore, does not adequately prepare students for university-level mathematics.

Said Dr George: “The findings of Phase I of this study indicate that many core aspects of algebra and calculus (i.e. complex numbers, vectors, matrices, proof by mathematical induction, integration, and differential equations) are excluded or covered vaguely in high school mathematics.

“To narrow the gap between high school and university mathematics, we recommend deepening the core aspects of calculus and trigonometry to specialise in minimal subjects directly linked to their intended fields of study at university.” Additionally, students needed to be informed of their lack of understanding through formative assessments that gave immediate feedback (such as the use of audience response systems).

Dr George said the next phase (Phase II) of this study would survey lecturers and students, to gain a better understanding of their teaching and learning experiences, respectively. This phase would seek lecturers’ and students’ opinions regarding the mathematics curriculum. These would be used to analyse mathematics tests — particularly calculus and trigonometry questions administered in the first semester of first year, to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by students and how they can be addressed.

“The goal of this study is to provide evidence-based recommendations for addressing the school-to-university transition problem in mathematics education, so that all students can have the opportunity to succeed in these critical fields.”

The researchers are waiting for ethical clearance before they can begin Phase II of the research.

Written by Charmain Naidoo, writer for Universities South Africa

A device that can power a refrigerator during load-shedding, a biogas stove and a wind turbine for generating energy to charge an electric car battery.

These were just some of the amazing ideas presented by entrants at the recent CPUT Student STEM Expo, which formed part of this year’s National Science Week activities at the institution.

National Science Week is an annual countrywide celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Innovation (STEMI), where various stakeholders, role players and interest groups collectively conduct activities that promote awareness of the value of STEMI to people’s daily lives.

This year’s theme was "Transforming lives through the evidence-based science”.

Guests were welcomed by STEM Coordinator, Dr Frikkie George, who said more than 100 initial entries were received for the expo, whereafter a shortlisting process took place.

CPUT’s STEM club was established last year and George said the STEM Expo is inspired by the Eskom Expo, which is focused on high school learners.

“In terms of way forward we would like to enter the global stage…so the ideal is to produce candidates that will be able to enter and to be worthy contenders when they are competing on a global stage.”

The speakers at the event were: Dr Xena Cupido, Director: Fundani CHED, Lyndon Manas, Provincial Coordinator of the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists in the Western Cape, Mokgadi Modise, Directo: SARETEC and Prof Burtram Fielding, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of the Western Cape.

The entrants were given a chance to deliver a 60-second pitch about their project while visitors could also view their exhibitions in the major sport hall.

Ntokozo Mashaba from Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering won the first prize for his project titled Car wind turbine.

He said the project’s aim and objectives were to design a prototype that could be mounted on top of a car and act as a wind turbine to generate electricity.

“The electrical energy generated can be used to charge the battery of an electric car,” said Ntokozo.

In second place were Rector Mathebula and Welcome Mkhabela with their project titled: Futuristic energy: Magnetic dome generator while the third place went to Dominic Preuss for his project titled Lithium-ion battery inverter system.

Written by Ilse Fredericks

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The at-risk Science and Mathematics students from numerous departments recently attended the STEM (Science, Technology, Education & Maths) mid-year boot camp intervention programme held at South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre.

The students came from the departments such as Maritime Studies, Marine Engineering, Mathematics, Marine Physics, B.Ed. FET Physical Science and Mathematics, Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Mathematics. The STEM boot camp has been designed to prepare students for the mid-year assessments.

The CPUT STEM Support Lead, Dr Frikkie George, says the boot camp intervention programme is one of the imperatives of the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG) STEM project funded by the Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET). The first Bootcamp was conducted in 2022 during the September recess. The Bootcamps take place twice a year - in May to prepare students for the mid-year assessments and in September to prepare students for the year-end final assessment.

“The Bootcamp targets at-risk mathematics, physics and chemistry students identified by lecturers. The interest and requests from students to attend grew, however, due to funding we can only accommodate 50 students in May and 100 in September,” said George.

During the bootcamp students worked through the assessments of the first semester in discipline specific sessions. Lecturers, Jerome Tangkeh from Mathematics and Physics Department, Rhulani Saka from Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, tutors, and STEM Club members facilitated the bootcamp sessions. The bootcamp was well attended despite the short notice to students and the timing of the bootcamp (last week of lecturers). Over the two days 95% of the students attended. The difference in the results of the pre-diagnostic and post-diagnostic tests indicate a 5% improvement.

To quantitively determine the success of the bootcamp intervention for recording purposes, students write a pre-diagnostic test at the start of the bootcamp and a post-diagnostic test at the end of the Bootcamp. The facilitators also randomly interview students during the bootcamp to qualitatively determine the students' experiences of the different sessions. The facilitators also track the academic performance in the mid-year and year-end assessments of the students who attend. “These measures are important to indicate whether the bootcamp makes an impact in the academic performance of students who attend the bootcamps.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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Marine Engineering students recently leveraged their knowledge of spherical trigonometry (specifically Napier's rule) to calculate the distance between two coordinates on a sphere to better understand navigation during the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) workshop.

In this interactive session, the students learned how to use TurtleStitch to devise an algorithm. Once established, the algorithm was deconstructed to make sense of the mathematics involved and then re-constructed to understand the building blocks of algorithms.

Lecturer, Dr Ekaterina Rzyankina, said the students’ expertise will be passed on to other students they support in the nautical science programme. Rzyankina said it was the first time that AIMS applied TurtleStitch to higher education mathematics.

“The AIMS visit not only emphasised the significance of interdisciplinary education between mathematics and engineering but also underscored the innovative prowess of our budding marine engineers. Seeing the students take charge during the session was a testament to our continent's remarkable potential and talent,” she observed.

The collaboration was made possible by Rzyankina and Dr Frikkie George, who play pivotal roles in STEM education at CPUT, and Dr Sinobia Kenny from AIMS. Rzyankina added: “We didn't just talk theory. We brought it to life through cutting-edge technology, integrating coding and a stitching machine to tangibly demonstrate these complex mathematical concepts. It was inspiring to see the engagement, and it sparked curiosity among the students as they saw the practical applications of their studies unfold right before their eyes.”

Kenny stated: “With younger learners, I’ve tried teaching the innovative TurtleStitch first and then the mathematics but, this time, with final-year undergraduate students, we started with the mathematics and then constructed algorithms.”

Also, see Rzyankina’s blog at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7193337883674431488/

Written by CPUT News
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In an effort to promote sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation, the STEM Club offered students a platform to exhibit their best research projects to the CPUT community.

This year's category winners are Mzameli Mashiyi, who is developing an African language speech recognition AI (Technology) and Nomava Mgidi, who is addressing unemployment through fashion design (Social Science).

This was part of the annual STEM Expo Competition at SARETEC as part of the National Science Week, where students were given opportunities to upscale their research projects via the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) for possible commercialisation. During this year's Expo Competition, the STEM Club worked closely with the Community Engagement (CE) and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) units. The neighbouring high school learners were also invited to be part of the programme and to view the exhibitions. CE and WIL also conducted a workshop with the learners.

The guest speakers included Jacqueline Scheepers: Manager: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Unit, Dr Xena Cupido: Fundani CHED director, Dr Mark Jacobs: Maths lecturer, Dr Gillian Arendse: Nuclear Physicist for iThemba Labs), and Ntokozo Mashaba: last year's winner. Dr Frikkie George, who is also CPUT STEM Support Lead, said the lively and animated talk of Dr Arendse “gapped the interest of the attendees”.

George, who also coordinated the event, said they witnessed fewer exhibitors this year but “the quality of the projects was impressive”.

However, the STEM Expo Competition was well attended. “We explore the possibility of accessing funding for the winners to up-scale their projects for commercialisation. This event showcases the CPUT STEM Club's members' research projects, and it may contribute to their academic performance.”

George, who is also the acting Head of Department: Fundani STARS Unit, continued: “This STEM Expo competition will advance the STEM awareness at CPUT and showcase students' research projects in the different departments.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce

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