A stack of playing cards and poker chips are coming in very handy during lessons at the Clothing and Textile Technology Department.

At CPUT, teaching is all about thinking out of the box and introducing pioneering ways to help students reach their full potential.

So, when Extended Curriculum Programme students in the Clothing and Textile Technology Department were battling with mathematics, lecturer Bernadette Millar introduced some new teaching methods in her class.

Each week, students are divided into groups of two and play a variety of card games, where they are required to use the numbers on their cards to multiple, subtract or do divisions. They also use poker chips and dice to brush up on fractions.

And Millar has proof that her methods are working. During the past few months, students’ marks have increased, while others who were failing are now passing their numeracy test.

Student Noncedo Buso who was battling with multiplication says the card games have helped improve her skills.

“I like using the cards. I find it helps me to do multiplication,” she says.

Student Awonke Kani describes Millar’s classes as fun and interactive. Awonke says he now has a much better understanding of numeracy.

Millar says the key to the games is to move students away from calculators and show them how to use their minds.

“The students are getting better all the time,” she says.

But Millar’s efforts don’t just stop there. She is also making sure students brush up on their language and public speaking skills. Students are required to do free writing in class, where they write uninterrupted for several minutes on a topic.

They also participate in a book club and each week students present on their novels.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News
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Movie scripts are hardly the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about studying architecture.

However, the two married together well in an exciting Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) this week.

CPUT offers a number of ECPs where students can enrol for an introductory course and gain easier access to the programme the following year.

On Wednesday 32 Architecture students visited the Castle in Cape Town and, after exploring the open courtyard and buildings, were given scripts from popular movies like The Matrix, American Beauty, Moulin Rouge and Vampire Diaries and asked to find appropriate settings for a scene of their choice.

The excited students, many of whom have never visited the Castle before, relished the task and quickly spread out across the grounds looking for unique settings.

Architecture Lecturer Heidi Boise has been teaching the ECP for five years and says it is a vital step for students who often come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Before you can design spaces you need to experience buildings,” she explains.

“You need to see space making in action, for example how floors, walls and roofs get put together.”

The students have already visited the Artscape and Green Point Urban Park so far and Boise says they have many more exciting visits planned including one to Grabouw soon.

Senior Architecture Lecturer Jolanda de Villiers Morkel says this is the first year the Extended Curriculum Programme is being run from CPUT’s Thomas Patulo Building.

This is a joint programme of the departments of architectural technology and interior design.

By LAUREN KANSLEY

Written by CPUT News
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The Food Technology Department is embarking on its first-ever service learning programme.

Eleven second-year Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) students will participate in the programme within several farming communities.

The department plans to kick-start the programme by taking students to Three Streams Smoker House in Franschhoek in order to bring the students into contact with the trout and fish processing industry.

The visit will take place either at the end of February or beginning of March.

The students will also work with farm workers on several wine, fruit and olive farms.

Sune St. Clair Botha, one of the Food Technology lecturers, is driving the project and has recently been appointed as Service Learning Coordinator.

According to Botha, the project will involve activities such as site visits to several farms.

Botha said: “The department felt the need to bring students into contact with the food industry and give them the experience and opportunity to see how end products are manufactured from the raw materials.”

The ultimate goal for the department is to visit the small-scale trout farmers’ cages, where trout are being farmed, and train these small-scale farmers in basic food hygiene and safety.

The project will address the need of giving the small-scale trout farmers the necessary information, knowledge, skills and opportunities to ensure the sustained quality of fresh trout, which are sold to different fish processing facilities.

Botha said: “Another major objective of this programme is to train the food-handlers who will be working in the fishing processing facility in basic Food Technology principles.

“This will aid hands-on co-operation to process and manufacture safe food, which will assist in business sustainability, right down to the small-scale trout farmers.

“The students will then be trained in basic food hygiene and personal hygiene, and how these two aspects are of great concern for trout farmers.”

The students will later be asked to develop course material in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, which they will then use to train the small-scale trout farmers at a formal training session.

The students will also make use of some simple microbiology practices to demonstrate food contamination as well as basic food and personal hygiene.

According to Botha, the students will receive training in a more practical manner and the project will give them that opportunity to better understand how all the knowledge they obtained in Food Technology course can be combined to address challenges and practicality in the food industry.

The project will further teach the students basic and advanced communication skills.

The department hopes to continue with more projects in the future should other opportunities exist.

Botha said the manager of Hands-On Trout Co-operation, a centre where the students will be working, intends to build its own processing facility in Stellenbosch.

“The owner will later need people to work there. Those people will need training and that is where our students will come in. Because by that time we would already have a relationship with the corporation and our students might need to train the workers,” concluded Botha.

By Andiswa Dantile

Written by CPUT News

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Student transitions to and within university were recently unpacked at the annual Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) Symposium hosted by CPUT.

The Regional ECP Symposium held on the Bellville Campus was themed, “Responsive and inclusive curricula and pedagogic practice in ECP: Understanding transitions to and within university”.

The ECP provides students with extra time as they are allowed an additional year in which to complete their studies.

Delivering the keynote address, UCT’s Dr Bongi Bangeni and Prof Rochelle Kapp said their study revealed that as students from disadvantaged backgrounds transitioned into university they have to negotiate their learning and identity.

“The data illustrate the ways in which student learning is often impeded by the limitations on choices within degree structures,” says Kapp.

Also shown was how decisions made at high school level continue to impact students’ pathways on entry, at senior levels and even after the successful completion of the first degree.

Their study recommended that understanding schooling and its impact on students’ experiences within university as well as turning classrooms into spaces for active engagement may improve student success.

Besides attracting delegates from the four universities in the region, the symposium was also attended by academics from the Unisa, the University of Johannesburg and Wits.

Welcoming the delegates to CPUT, Prof Anthony Staak, DVC: Academic, said dysfunctional schooling yields students who are under-prepared for university education.

“Accept under-preparedness and adjust the curriculum accordingly,” advises Staak.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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The Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) is currently offered in 35 programmes across the institution in the faculties of Engineering, Applied Science, Informatics and Design, Business and Health and Wellness.

The academic support programme is aimed at significantly curbing the number of first-year dropouts and to meet the challenges faced by students entering university from disadvantaged backgrounds who are ill-prepared for the rigours of academic life

ECP students are chosen from the regular intake of applicants after being identified as being at-risk of failing, based on their final school results or on other types of testing or portfolios submissions.

ECP students attend separate classes from the regular first year group. These classes are smaller allowing for more frequent and intense support from their lecturers and tutors.

The more hands on approach mean ECP students complete their first year over two years and then continue with the rest of the programme as normal. 

All students get the same diploma, with the same wording, regardless of whether they started with the ECP or the ‘mainstream’ programme.

ECP benefits include:

• Providing students with the best chance of success
• Smaller classes
• More intense support from lecturers.

Contact the faculty office of your course of choice for more information. Please note that applicants cannot apply for ECP.

Written by Lauren Kansley
Tel: +27 21 953 8646
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

Time is running out for anyone wanting to apply for a number of the most popular design courses available at CPUT.

Architectural Technology and a number of the design courses like Fashion, Graphic, Interior, Jewellery, Three dimensional and Surface will be completing stage one of the application process by the end of this month.

Each design course requires a detailed portfolio submission as well as a written submission which will be evaluated by a selection panel. If a student is applying for more than one design course they will be required to submit a portfolio for each individual course.

All portfolios need to be handed in personally and if mailed should be sent via registered mail to the specified address where the course is offered eg: Roeland Street, Media City or Cape Town Campus by no later than 2pm on July 31 .

After the portfolio evaluation potential students may be invited to a written test or interview which takes place in September. After this a student will be given a final decision on their application status.

Students who show promise but may struggle with the rigours of first year may be given the option of entering the Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP). ECP students attend the same lectures as the other students for their registered subjects, but initially take a lighter academic load and have additional academic support. The support takes the form of practicals and field-trips; as well as various key skills needed for success at university level. The first year is spread over two years, after which ECP students proceed with the mainstream programme. All students get the same Diploma, with the same wording, regardless of whether they did the ECP or the mainstream programme.

Written by Lauren Kansley
Tel: +27 21 953 8646
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Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

A field trip to a historic village in the Overberg has not only helped a group of students to develop necessary skills in their field but provided them with insights into its historical context.

Architectural Technology and Interior Design students on the Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) recently visited Genadendal, the oldest Moravian mission village on the continent.

Lecturer Alex Noble says the trip covered work from all of their different subjects while the students also received insights into the history of the village.

She says the visit helped to develop students’ early measuring up and drafting skills, their observational drawing skills and their understanding of place making, allowing students to look into early settlement patterns.

They also investigated street thresholds and explored different building components.

 “The students found it very interesting and insightful. Every year we try to take them on a trip and this is the second year that we’ve taken the ECP class to Genadendal. We find that trips like these bring a level of excitement into the learning,” says Noble.

Noble adds that the trip brought the ECP class closer together and had a strong social cohesion component.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The Faculty of Applied Sciences’ Extended Curriculum Programme Coordinator, Prof Beatrice Opeolu, and her Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Research Group heeded the call to participate in cleaning beaches.

The call to remove plastic nurdles that were spilled by a ship into the ocean was made by the Western Cape Government.

Postgraduate students and the postdoctoral fellows went to Milnerton Beach as part of an exercise in which they were able to see the importance and relevance of their research.  Opeolu said the Beat Plastic Pollution campaign was launched in 2018 by the United Nations to call for global attention to the harm and risks of plastic pollution to humans and the environment.

She led the campaign at CPUT in 2018 and seminars, panel discussions, and community cleaning activities were subsequently organised. The awareness created has resulted in a shift from the use of single-use plastics at some of CPUT’s activities.

“Plastics in water may be visible or invisible fragments; these fragments are referred to as macroplastics, mesoplastics and microplastics, depending on their sizes. They get into waterbodies from waste discharges, wastewater treatment plants and household products, among others,” added Opeolu.

She said the different types of plastics that have been found in the water included low and high-density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, foamed polystyrene, nylon, thermoplastic polyester and polyvinyl chloride.  Opeolu stated that the plastics originate from packaging materials, netting, plastic bags, cigarette filters, etc. She cautioned that plastics ingested by aquatic organisms may lead to adverse effects on ecosystem functions.

“Plastics have the potential to adversely affect the digestive tract, respiratory system and locomotive appendages of aquatic organisms. Some animals that live in water may also be entrapped or entangled and chocked by plastics,” Opeolu warned.

Other chemicals may also adhere to plastics causing ecological disruption. “Our previous studies have indicated the presence of some of these endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) such as phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated compounds and pharmaceuticals in water and wastewater systems, she remarked.

Opeolu added that the presence of plastics in water may therefore aggravate the human and ecological effects of the EDC. She said some human health risks concerning plastics include eye and respiratory tract irritation, acute skin rashes, birth defects, indigestion, liver dysfunction.

“They may also release estrogenic compounds and are potential carcinogens.  Plastics may [also] cause changes in insulin resistance, reproductive system and brain function.”

She is also investigating the ecological and human health implications of microplastics in two freshwater systems - the Diep and Plankenburg Rivers. The project is being funded by the Water Research Commission. Furthermore, Opeolu recently obtained another grant from the National Research Foundation to investigate the influence of microplastics in wastewater systems. The investigation will focus on ecotoxicological studies and human health risk assessment of microplastics in Cape Town water systems.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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