Computing Sciences’ Professor Jean Greyling and Jackson Tshabalala, Tangible Africa Engagement Manager interacting at the Silverstone Family Zone.
Nelson Mandela University’s Computing Sciences together with the Leva Foundation and Tangible Africa showcased their new coding app Speed Stars, at the Silverstone Family Zone at the recent British Grand Prix.
Head of Computing Sciences Professor Jean Greyling, CEO of Leva Foundation, Tangible Africa’s implementation partner Ryan le Roux, and Tangible Africa Engagement Manager, Jackson Tshabalala, joined Creative Hut, their UK partners, to entertain the children at the Silverstone Family Zone with their new racing car themed coding app.
In 2022, the team started training teachers in Ireland, hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Communities.
Through this work they met Creative Hut, who organised the project to run the family zone at Silverstone and invited the South African team to bring their game for the children to interact with.
Hundreds of children moved through the Family Zone over the three days where they interacted with Speed Stars and various Lego activities, says Prof Greyling.
British race car driver Lewis Hamilton, who won the British Grand Prix, has founded Mission 44 to introduce young people to STEM careers.
“We were fortunate to be invited to showcase Speed Stars and the bigger project to the management of Mission 44 and they were impressed with what we do, said Prof Greyling.
Over 120 000 learners in around 20 countries, in partnership with teacher unions, 30 000 teachers have been trained using the team’s training material.
“Our biggest achievement has been, in partnership with many other role players, to change the national mood towards unplugged coding in primary schools, as an education method that is not inferior to working in labs; as well as very effective, as 1000s of schools do not have computer labs.
“We truly want to make a positive difference in SA in reaching and having an impact on all schools in our country. This is essential if we do not want to exclude millions of learners in disadvantaged areas. Then we also believe we have a project that can make a global impact”.