Day 15 & 17 - Kazungula Primary & Plateau Primary

Our last two workshop days in Kasane were spent at Kazungula Primary School and Plateau Primary School. With a rest day in between, we had two very busy days delivering our cookie mining workshop and earthquake simulator workshop to both schools, and at Kazungula we made prosthetic hands also.

The cookie mining workshop, showcasing civil engineering, was so much fun with both sets of students, with only a few cookie casualties! The children grasped the environmental protection concept so quickly and did a fantastic job at balancing this with their mine placement and controlling their cookie crumb fallout.

For the earthquake simulation workshop, we explored civil engineering again and what makes a good structure. The workshop was introduced by talking to the students about what shapes make strong structures and what kinds of bases we would need. In groups, the students were given a range of materials - for example, cardboard pieces, paper straws, paper cups and skewers - to create an earthquake-proof structure that is as tall as possible but strong and sturdy enough to withstand and earthquake simulation test! The children were able to let their creativity run wild with this one and their determination paid off. The structures the students came up with were fantastic, across both schools we saw super tall buildings, beautifully decorated houses, strong structures and most importantly - very enthusiastic students. Everybody really enjoyed this workshop, asking for guidance when needed but we observed lots of teamwork and problem-solving when the teams were building their structures.

What a way to end our Kasane workshops, where we learned just how innovative young people can be when given the opportunity to be creative!