To mark Mandela Day, PHA4GE hosted a visit from learners from Woodlands Primary at the SANBI offices on the UWC campus.

The Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) marked this year’s Mandela Day by hosting 20 young learners from Heideveld with the hope of inspiring them to become tomorrow’s scientists.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming rollout of coding and robotics curricula at South African schools served as the backdrop for the learners’ trip to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on 25 July 2024.

The first stop for the Grade 5 learners from Woodlands Primary was a hands-on introduction to coding and robotics at UWC’s Faculty of Education building. Dr Tony Williams from the Richard van der Ross Resource Centre, and members of UWC’s Robotics club, guided the learners through some coding fundamentals using a bank card shaped device known as the micro:bit. 

Developed in the UK, but now popular around the world, micro:bit is one of many tools being deployed to teach the principles of coding to school children. The devices have been taken up in greater numbers alongside the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) rollout of coding and robotics curricula – along with other tech-focused curricula – at schools around the country, with full-scale implementation scheduled for 2025.

Tracey Calvert-Joshua of PHA4GE explains the basics of diseases, infection and drug development to the learners.

After programming the micro:bit, the learners moved to the offices of its hosts for the day, PHA4GE, based at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI). PHA4GE is an international network of scientists dedicated to the development of open-source bioinformatics tools, with collaborators in more than 70 countries. The Alliance’s Secretariat operates from SANBI.

At the SANBI offices, PHA4GE scientific lead Tracey Calvert-Joshua and other PHA4GE staff and students walked the learners through some of the fundamentals of diseases and how they’re combated. Calvert-Joshua introduced the learners – with the aid of some video materials – to concepts such as pathogens and the human immune system, and to the production of medicines. 

While these are sometimes hard-to-grasp subjects, made all the more so when they are not taught at school, learners were often more knowledgeable about these topics than assumed, says Calvert-Joshua. 

“I felt that we shouldn’t really underestimate kids, and that we could guide them through these concepts and ideas,” she said.

In addition to its links to Mandela Day, the visit by the young learners formed part of PHA4GE’s ‘Youth 4 Science’ initiative, which looks to teach young people about possible career pathways in science and public health, regardless of their backgrounds. 

Learners do a bit of coding during their visit to UWC as part of PHA4GE’s Mandela Day event.

In particular, the initiative aims to excite learners about career opportunities in science - an initiative that is all the more critical as interest in these subjects have waned at schools. 

“We wanted to show them that science can be fun while highlighting the important roles scientists have in today's world,” says Rangarirai Matima, communications lead with PHA4GE.

The visit was arranged by Professor Alan Christoffels, PHA4GE’s Secretariat and UWC’s Institutional Advancement PR and Events Unit, in collaboration with Great Commission United (GCU), a not-for-profit organisation operating in Heideveld. 

Dr Tony Williams helps the learners through some basic coding during their visit.

The PHA4GE visit dovetailed with several programmes that the GCU runs in the community, particularly those aimed at expanding the horizons of children and youth, explained Natalie Abrahams, a volunteer working with GCU. 

“Learners would now understand the value of actually working hard at school, and also at a young age, being able to choose their subjects properly and to know in which fields they would want to work in one day,” she said.