For the foreseeable…

After 8 years of ‘Doing Science’ in Tanzania and after much consideration I have decided to suspend the teacher workshop program.   I am proud of the work we have done.  I think we have come as far as we can and believe that teachers have increased their knowledge and confidence through the sharing that took place through the Do Science workshops.  I hope that they will continue to communicate with their professional colleagues in the region.

I extend a tremendous ‘Thank You” to all of you who have supported Do Science through financial donations and encouragement.  I will continue to support students through scholarships as long as the funds are available.  The library will continue to lend the Do Science equipment as required.

I continue to live part time in Moshi with my husband and two children, helping out teachers and students when I am able.

Thanks for reading my blog….Bye for now.

Diana

 

 

 

Changes for DST 2018

It is after much consideration that I announce the following changes to Do Science for the coming year 2018..

• Teacher workshops have been suspended for 2018.  Getting consistent participation and motivated teachers to work towards the goals of Do Science has proven to be challenging.  I hope that in the future support from the municipality and from school administrators will allow is to revisit the workshop program.  
• The lending library of equipment will continue.  Teachers are encouraged to borrow equipment to be used in their classrooms.  Equipment that is not being used will be brought back to Canada and donated to schools in need up North.
• The student scholarship program will continue.  Do Science is aware of the continued struggles facing many students who haven’t the funds to pay for notebooks, uniforms and lunch.  DST will continue to assess applications and support these students as we have for the past 6 years.  Donations made to Do Science for this purpose are guaranteed to reach the students with more than 100% of the donation being spent on school support for the recipients.  As always, money is paid directly to the school account for lunch and used to buy notebooks and uniforms directly.  These items and the receipts for funds paid are then presented to the students..

 

Wrap up

The last workshop for 2017 was held in August.  Despite extensive attempts to remind teachers, only 5 teachers attended. Two Physics, One Biology and 2 Chemistry.  These are the loyal members who show up every month from Natiro Secondary School and Moshi Technical Secondary.  I’m not sure where to go next with DST.  I am finding it discouraging to prepare each month with such a low turnout.

I’ve planned the calendar for 2018 but I’m going to have to give it all some thought as to the value of the program.  I’d hate to let down these invested members.

I’ll be heading back to Canada next week after spending 5 months here in Moshi.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone back home.

Physics teachers determine density of kerosene using the U-tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one Biology teacher continued to refine the apparatus for demonstrating CO2 in exhaled breath.

Passionate Discussion

On Wednesday we held our July workshop which was attended by 17 teachers.

The Biology panel was particularly invested in their discussion of osmosis.  The stems of the ‘paw paw’ plant (shown below) look like giant straws.  They cut the ends of the straws vertically and placed one in each of salty water, water and MnO2 solution.

The results are shown here too.

The water went out of the stem into the salty water in an attempt to even out the concentration of water on either side of the cell wall.  The water went into the stem cells from the water beaker to dilute the interior of the cell in attempt to equalize.  In the third sample the water went out of the solution, leaving the MnO2 (purple colour does not penetrate the stem).  This demonstrates the process of osmosis which controls the movement of water across cell membranes.

To the right you can see a potato that started with dry salt inside.  Can you guess which potato is in the pure water and which is in the salty water? It’s hard to see but the bottom left shows the salt still relatively dry while the bottom right shows the salt relatively wet.

A great discussion ensued around the specific definition of the term ‘osmosis’.

The physics panel was working on showing refraction and reflection with optical pins.  I’ve taught physics for some 24 years and had not seen the kind of analysis they were doing.  For example instead of showing that angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence in reflection, they were comparing the turn-back angle (the angle of deviation from the original path) to the incident angle.  Not really sure how I feel about this in terms of a useful relationship.  The analysis of the refraction exercise I still need to take a look at.  It was quite complex.

All the physics teachers were also quite involved and appreciated the chance to re-investigate these concepts together.

 

April Mud Day

Many of you will be familiar with a ‘Snow Day’.  Here we have mud days.  It is raining every night and the soil is such that it is very sticky and slippery.  The ruts in the road become overpowering and take your car on it’s own course, but you have to keep going or you will be literally ‘sunk’.  Deo is a great driver and can get us out of our road, however you have to hold onto your seat because it’s quite a rough ride.  I think he would make a good winter driver although he may end you up on the wrong side of the road as people here often drive on whichever side has the best conditions.

Walking is also treacherous and your shoes hold the muck like nothing I’ve seen.  Anna went to school yesterday with plastic bags over her shoes.  She says the mud won’t stick to the plastic.

Because of the weather, we had a disappointing turnout at the workshop.  Only 4 teacher attended however the 4 were keen to learn and they had a good session.

Chemistry teachers were conducting an experiment to determine the energy contained in kerosene fuel.  They massed the fuel before and after heating a beaker of water.  They determined the heat used to heat by measuring the temperature change and related it back to the mass difference.

Biology teachers were testing exhaled breath vs. air in the room for CO2.  The apparatus was constructed from straws.  It delivers exhaled breath into the lime-water of one flask and above the lime-water in the other flask.    The lime-water is an indicator for CO2.  As the concentration of CO2 increases the lime-water becomes more opaque and milky.  It shows that the body converts oxygen in the air to CO2.

 

 

 

 

Physics teachers were using the meter bridge to determine the resistance of a wire.  I learned something new.  I learned that a bent wire has more resistance than a straight wire.  As shown in the photo, the bottom wire has a resistance around 1 ohm more than the straight wire.  We tested it with an ohmmeter.

This experiment is rather sensitive and requires consistency and thought. It also requires a fair amount of analysis.

Good workshop….bad turnout.  What can you do?

 

Success Story

You might remember Tumaini Chacha.  He was the boy who took the suitcase of science apparatus to Mara region to spread  the word of science to students there.  He was one of the first scholarship recipients from DST.  This allowed him to pay of his secondary school dept and proceed to University.  He has been very resourceful and innovative in finding money for school fees since then.  He has now graduated with a diploma as a Medical Officer.  Tumaini has started a business providing medical testing and information.

Here is an excerpt from his recent email….

“Personally I thank you much since in one way or another you supported me much and now I’m even able to pay a school fees for my young brothers and sisters. Currently I have taken them to Private schools,

Two are in form six and two are in form four for this year, so is something to thank God and all of you who put their hands on my studies.

Best regards.

Tumaini”

and

“Hope God makes a way, I’m currently travelling very long distance for Testing and counselling my fellow Tanzanian about HIV/AIDS.

This is what I like and believe  most to help and put my hand to others life.

I thanks you again for your contribution to my studies and i hope to go back for Medical doctor bachelor by next year if my young’s will do better in their coming exams, means load will be less to me.”

I am very proud of Tumaini’s success story and the small part that Do Science played in his road.

Heading overseas for an extended stay.

I’ve recently retired (February) and am heading back to Tanzania on Wednesday, this time for a 6 month stay.  I’m looking forward to attending the April workshop for Do Science, seeing the teachers in person and getting some authentic, first hand feedback.

DST enters 7th year

There were 19 teachers at the January workshop last week.  I see the Biology teachers working with the new heart models that I purchased recently.  Some said they had received information from the Head Teachers and others not.

Today is the first day of my retirement.  I will be heading over in April and staying until October which will give me a proper chance to do some assessments on the program.

Yesterday I heard that a violent storm swept through our neighbourhood.  It lasted only one hour but came with strong winds and a LOT of rain.  The brick wall on one side of my property was blown down and several banana and other kinds of trees were broken.

Other people in the neighbourhood lost walls as well as parts of their roofs.  There is a Water Church near us that is held in a large tent.  It was totally blown away.  This is very rare and very isolated as in Moshi town it didn’t even rain at all.

So it’s the 7th year for Do Science and it looks like we will continue with the workshops and I look forward to being there and being more involved personally.

 

 

Happy New Year

I see a number of people visiting my site and I apologize for not having any updates for you.  I recently was in Moshi for Christmas and let me tell you it was HOT, HOT, HOT.

I was mostly resting and celebrating Christmas with my family there but did meet with Do Science Leaders and with Municipal Council.  We are still facing a communication problem and can’t be sure whether the Head Teachers have received the DST information.  This makes planning very difficult.   The workshops are labour intensive for the leaders and if they can’t rely on attendance then it can be discouraging.

I’m also pondering ways to restructure the scholarship program.  There are no school fees but there are still costs to going to school such as uniform, food for lunch and notebooks.  I bought notebooks for a Form 1 student over the holidays and they needed 12 of them and the cost about $2 each.  They are large counter books and they must have them.  They don’t have enough textbooks for the class either.  I hate to think of students going all day without food.

I am finishing up my semester here at Bell and am retiring at the end of the month.  This will allow me to travel more freely and focus on other things.  I’m very much looking forward to it.  I don’t think I’ll be going again in Dec – Jan though due to the heat.  Jun – Aug are very nice there.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for visiting my site and Happy New Year to everyone.

Good Web News

Well a miracle has occurred.  I finally have solved the problems with the DST website.  I’ve created a brand new site. Many apologies for the delay.

Take a look….www.dosciencetanzania.org.