Science Communication Archives - Page 3 of 4

UNISA Young Academics: Beyond the Basics – Serious about research

UNISA Young Academics Programme

Beyond the Basics – Serious about research

Jive Media Africa is excited to have been able to work with talented young researchers from the UNISA Young Academics programme (YAP). Piloted in 2008, the YAP has become one of UNISA’s most successful initiatives. YAP forms part of UNISA’s capacity-building initiatives responding to the need for a visible and critical mass of high quality academics. YAP seeks to develop young (under the age of 35), promising, and talented individuals for the future career in research, management and academics.

Jive Media Africa was invited to work alongside the Young Academics Programme to grow skills for science communication and engagement. Participants were required to give a 10-minute presentation on their 5-year research plans. The presentations should appeal to a diverse audience and hence require the participants to think differently about their work in order to engage the larger university community and the public. Jive Media Africa was invited to deliver training before the talks and expert input afterwards.

September 22, 2016/by Jive Media

Nozipho made us proud!

Nozipho Gumbi , a PhD candidate in nanotechnology and water at the University of South Africa, has represented South African science on a world stage! Nozipho – you are an inspiration to us all.

Nozipho’s FameLab journey started last year with her first speech at the UNISA student showcase in Pretoria. She proceeded to calmly and confidently win round after round, at the UNISA heat and in Cape Town at the British Council hosted Going Global conference. After winning the South African leg of the competition Nozipho, who is currently studying in Germany, made her way to The Times Cheltenham Science Festival in the United Kingdom. After delivering a speech on how carbon nano-tubes can be used to remove micro-pollutants in our water systems, Nozipho secured herself a place in the finals.

Nozipho, you have made us proud. You are a truly inspiring role model for young scientists and for woman in science everywhere.

Congratulations to Abhi Veerakumarasivam from Malaysia who was crowned FameLab 2016 champion for his winning talk on our individual responsibilities when it comes to fighting cancer.

Find out more about FameLab at www.britishcouncil.org.za/famelab

June 10, 2016/by Jive Media

Science Communication, Skills Development, Training and Mentorship

Nozipho Gumbi wins FameLab South Africa 2016

The International FameLab Competition has chosen its South African Winner: Nozipho Gumbi from Eshowe (KZN), a PhD candidate at the University of South Africa in the Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability Research Unit
The final of the South African leg took place in front of a capacity audience at the glittering Cape Town International Convention Centre – venue of the British Council Going Global conference.

The finalists presented to the high-profile audience and judges, who included Dr Tollulah Oni (UCT school of Public Health) Dr Carolina Odman (Universe awareness Programme) Koki Selepe (Department of Science and Technology) and John Wade Smith (British High Commission. Quentin Cooper of the BBC and FameLab International played the role of MC.
Runners up were Claude Moshobane from Limpopo, currently working with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and Savannah Nuwagaba from Uganda, currently at Stellenbosch University. Moshobane discussed alien invasive plants and how they disrupt the ecosystem, while Nuwagaba spoke about how mathematics is used to predict possible changes in animals’ body size, depending on changes in their eating habits.

But the star of the show was Nozipho Gumbi from Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, who is currently studying nanotechnology at UNISA. Gumbi was the overall favourite as she dazzled the audience and the judges with her engaging talk on water filtration using carbon nanotubes.
Nozipho Gumbi’s journey has only just begun. She will soon be packing her bags and jetting off to the United Kingdom for the FameLab International Finals hosted by Cheltenham Festivals to go up against 30 country winners for the international title. Humble, yet confident – Gumbi acknowledged the other candidates saying “each and every one of you could have been the winner tonight”. Congratulations once again to all the contestants and we wish Nozipho all the best for the International finals.

May 5, 2016/by Jive Media

Music Communication, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Success at the 2016 PCST conference in Istanbul

Robert Inglis, Director of Jive Media Africa, presented the Hip Hop Health project to a packed session at the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) 2016 conference. Very positive feedback was received from science communication academics and practitioners alike from as far afield as Mexico, Vietnam, Spain and Australia, with participants calling it “significant” and “beautiful”, among others. The Hip Hop Health communication products are available for free download on the Science Spaza Website. See www.sciencespaza.org

The Agent Zee Project was represented through a poster, which was initially selected as one of 10 to be presented at a session during the conference. At the closing plenary it was selected along with two others as a top conference poster. The poster explored this issue of lack of female representation in science leadership and explored the use of social media in responding to this through the profiling of women scientist role-models. The Agent Zee programme has been awarded free registration at the next PCST conference in New Zealand in 2018. The poster can be seen at www.agentzee.org

May 5, 2016/by Jive Media

Music Communication, Science Communication

Public Communications of Science & Technology (PCST): Hip Hop and Science in the Spotlight.

The 14th Public Communication of Science and Technology conference will be held in Istanbul from the 26th-the 28th of April. Robert Inglis, director of Jive Media Africa, heads to the annual event where leaders in science communication gather to network and develop strategies to further the goal of getting the public to engage with science and technology. Director Robert Inglis will be presenting the Hip Hop Health Research, Rhythm and Rhyme initiative to the conference to demonstrate its effectiveness in encouraging the youth to engage with science and health. The use of music, specifically hip hop, as a medium through which the material is analysed and the information is disseminated has yielded very positive results. The Hip Hop Science Spaza programme results in songs which are used to empower researchers into active roles as scientists in society. It shows that solutions to the issues that their communities face can be found through science so it is important to involve young people in the public communication of science. These success stories will be shared with the science communication community at the conference. For more information on Science Spaza visit www.sciencespaza.org.

Inglis will also be presenting on another initiative of Jive Media Africa: Agent Zee. This is a platform for the upliftment and development of women in science and is aimed at high school seniors and tertiary students. Female scientists remain under-represented in leadership positions in South Africa and so Agent Zee seeks to combat this by providing information on education and career opportunities as well as profiling role models and inspiring success stories for aspiring female scientists. If you’d like to find out more about Agent Zee, visit www.agentzee.org.

April 1, 2016/by Jive Media

Music Communication, News, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science Engagement

National Science Week 2015

SAMA award winning Hip Hop artist iFani jetted in to KZN to collaborate with star scientists and learners from Edendale Technical High School to kick off Hip Hop Science Spaza 2015.

Learners, who had been preparing and practicing their songs on light, met up with leading SA scientists from the CSIR National Laser Centre and the International Square Kilometre Array project before putting their songs under the spotlight.

Hip Hop Science Spaza is celebrating the International Year of Light and Light Based Technologies – raising awareness of the importance of light in our lives – including its role in scientific discovery and numerous applications which affect our lives form data transmission to health diagnostics.

Also featured were the “Ionic Bonds”, Durban based science learners and runners-up in the 2014 Hip Hop Science Spaza competition along with beatboxer Lungelo. iFani was accompanied by up-and-coming Hip Hop artist, KZN’s Lex LaFoy who reflected on the role of the social sciences and the power of Hip Hop to change lives.

To find links to the interviews and the music go to www.sciencespaza.org

The event was featured on SABC’s Morning Live as well as Hectic Nine-9 (SABC2) during National Science Week. You could pick up the interviews and recordings on community radio stations nationally or online every day during National Science Week 2015.

The Hip Hop Science Spaza Project is a national collaboration between popular music artists and learners in science clubs around South Africa to make science accessible to the general public. See www.sciencespaza.org. Science Spaza is an initiative of Jive Media Africa.

National Science Week is an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology managed through the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA). Find out more at www.saasta.ac.za

August 4, 2015/by Jive Media

Music Communication, News, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Hip Hop Health: Research, Rhyme, and Rhythm for Healthy Communities

Hip Hop Health: Research, Rhyme, and Rhythm for Healthy Communities is a collaboration between members of Science Spaza science clubs, popular music artists and health researchers to address health challenges facing South African communities.

The project’s purpose is to enable young people to engage with health research, and in this project specifically research around water and water-related disease. This will be done by firstly mentoring the science clubs on research methodologies and research ethics. And secondly, then to undertake one of three research projects on water-related disease in their own communities. Upon completion of these research projects, the clubs will turn their new knowledge into hip hop and rap songs with a prominent Hip Hop artist which will then be performed for their communities, recorded and filmed for wider distribution.

Project leaders are Ms Hilary Kromberg Inglis BMus (Hons) Music Communication and Dr Neil McKerrow, Head: Paediatrics and child health, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health.

Also involved are award-winning science communication and science engagement expert and MD of Jive Media Africa, Mr Robert Inglis. Expert consultants are Dr Douglas Wassenaar M.A. (Clin. Psych.) PhD, School of Applied Human Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal as well as Dr Lisa M. Butler, Ph.D. (Education), M.P.H. (Epidemiology & Biostatistics), Ph.D. (Epidemiology) Boston Children’s Hospital, Department of Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics; Harvard Medical School, Department of Pediatrics.

This initiative has been made possible through The Wellcome Trust’s International Engagement Award. The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in health by supporting the brightest minds.

Mehlokazulu Science Club, Sobantu Science Club and Science Spaza staff, Olwazini Discovery Centre

June 16, 2015/by Jive Media

Science Communication, Science Communication Training, Skills Development

Media and Science Communications Training – CSIR

Jive Media Africa has been appointed to run a series of science communication and media training workshops for the CSIR (Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research) at their various research centres around the country. We are looking forward to working with scientists at the cutting edge of their disciplines. By collaborating with a number of well-known science journalists and media experts, our aim is to strengthen relationships between scientists and the media, a powerful channel to public audiences.

December 15, 2014/by Jive Media

Comics, News, Public Engagement, Science Communication

Investing in the Future Awards Finalist, 2014

Science Spaza: The Mail & Guardian and the Southern Africa Trust Investing in the Future and Drivers of Change Awards Finalist !

The Mail & Guardian and the Southern Africa Trust present and host the Investing in the Future and Drivers of Change Awards each year. This year has been an exciting and proud year for Jive Media Africa’s new initiative, Science Spaza, as we were announced one of the three finalists for the STEM Skills Development Award 2014.

Robert Inglis (Director at Jive Media) and Science Spaza’s Project Managers (Thandile Mdlambuzi and Nelani Mbokazi) attended the awards function held in Sandton (Johannesburg) on Tuesday, 28 October 2014. The winner of the Award went to Investec Pro Maths. Well done to this inspiring initiative!

Read all about Science Spaza at www.sciencespaza.org and Partner with us to further our passion for young South African’s gaining enough knowledge to make decisions for their futures… !!!

October 30, 2014/by Jive Media

Music Communication, News, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science Engagement

Hip Hop and Science combine with explosive results!

SAMA award winning rap artist, iFani, jetted into Durban on Saturday, 19 July 2014 for a music event with a difference – the Hip Hop Science Spaza! The BAT Centre (Durban) was the laboratory in which hip hop and science were combined to boost science education with the addition of a little rap.

Grade 10 – 12 learners from Chesterville and Umlazi engaged in practical science activities and then turned new knowledge into rap songs. The event culminated in a hip hop battle for the best science rap. The surprise ingredient was iFani, the hottest name in SA Rap who this year won a SAMA for best rap album and who is incidentally also a computer scientist.

Being the International Year of Crystallography, the workshop started with a lesson delivered by Dr Sphamandla Sithebe, an organic chemistry researcher and lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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Learners then developed rhyming lines and raps working with Music Communication specialist and creative director at Jive Media Africa, Hilary Kromberg and KZN based musicians Rooted Souls.

To screams of surprise and delight, iFani arrived on Saturday morning ahead of the local battle. He spent an hour with the stunned learners giving them performance tips and talking to them about his journey from humble beginnings to stardom – answering personal questions about his career as a scientist and musician, as well as his grandmother, Mama Mthembu, who raised him as a single parent and passed away in 2010.

“iFani means ‘not the same’ and Science Spaza is presenting science information in new ways. We’re excited to be collaborating with iFani to bring science to the people – it’s a great partnership.” said Robert Inglis, Director of Jive Media Africa and co-founder of the Science Spaza initiative.

This year celebrates the International Year of Crystallography, 100 years since the discovery of X-Ray crystallography – an advance that allowed scientists to see the crystal structure of molecules. Crystallography is a wide-ranging discipline, which impacts on nearly every field of science and technology.

The two day workshop was filmed for Hectic Nine – 9 the popular youth show on SABC 2, for National Science Week 2014 from the 2nd to the 9th August. National Science Week is an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology administered by SAASTA, the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement.

Click here to view the gallery of photographs

The Jive team with iFani

July 21, 2014/by Jive Media

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