University of the Western Cape’s Computer Modelling Outreach Entice and Educate School Learners
The Grade 10 mathematics and science pupils from the Kuils River-based school, their teachers, and educators from other schools in Cape Town converged on campus for the second Saturday session for Project 2026.
The initiative, run by the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Natural Science, is aligned with the university’s community engagement strategy. It is intended to create a new generation of first-year students choosing UWC to study science in 2026, according to Ian Schroeder, a senior technical officer who has been seconded as a lecturer to the Extended Curriculum Programme.
“There is a move towards using Computational Modelling as a powerful tool for providing students with an opportunity to develop a deep conceptual understanding by ‘teaching’ the computer. This is not in CAPS, and the school does not have the facilities; hence the Computational Modelling Saturday sessions at UWC were born,” Schroeder explained.
He said between 2008 and 2010; he ran Undergraduate Research Training sessions on Saturdays, where they worked on developing Computational Modelling skills and organised outings to relevant companies and organisations. And on his return to campus a few years ago, he ran various modelling workshops and vacation work experiences for first-year physics students. “This is where I started to realise that if I had engaged them earlier, we could have them thrive in higher education and not try and survive. This resulted in conversations with Soneike High, and it started off as a project to introduce laboratory-based Inquiry Lab Investigations for Grades 10-12”.
The project grew, and this year it focuses on Grade 10s (first-years in 2026), “and the idea is to have these students on an iKamva project site with scaffolded content and have them meet students (postgrad and undergrad) and staff in Science over the next three years”.
Ian Schroeder with Soneike High students
“This will be at the Physics PC Lab so that they get the authentic UWC experience. I will also work with the teachers over the next three years to develop these inquiry-based demonstration labs for Grade 10 in 2023, Grade 11 in 2024 and Grade 12 in 2025 for use in class at the school”.
The teachers agreed that the project would take teaching and learning at high schools to higher levels.
Erich Erasmus, physical science teacher at Soneike High, believes that their collaboration with UWC is beneficial to the learners “as it introduces them early to what they would be working on in their future careers in coding and assimilation using computers.
“More and more technology has become a big part of our lives. Kids grow up with smartphones, which would also translate into their careers. I believe this opportunity presented by UWC is good, and we should encourage more learners to take these kinds of opportunities,” said Erasmus.
Principal, Ronel Baker, added: “The learners are excited today because they are doing third-year university work. It is about ensuring that all of them stay in physics because a lot of learners jump from field to field all the time. This project will make them think differently, and have enquiring minds and it will give them good practical exposure. This is going to assist us in pushing up results considerably in maths and physics.”
“The workshop has been extremely constructive, particularly for teaching and learning. I had the opportunity to understand the importance of educational technology in the classroom and how it can enhance conceptual understanding when teaching Mathematics or Science.”