On Monday, 02 June 2008 , the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) welcomed visitors from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in its Pretoria office.

AMNH was represented by Dr Maritza MacDonald who is the Director of Education and Policy, Ms Kaelee Kim and Mr David Randle.

“This an opportunity for SAASTA and the broader National Research Foundation (NRF) to collaborate with an institution like AMNH, to exchange ideas on successes and challenges of science education outreach and communications programmes,” says Beverley Damonse, the Executive Director of SAASTA.

AMNH has 150 scientists working for the museum and are involved with a number of resources for schools children, learners and the general public. These include the following:

•  Seminars on Science

This is a distance learning programme which is an online teacher development programme. The fee-based programme can be taken over six weeks and includes 10 courses that are offered to teachers.

“This programme helps with teacher retention in that teachers are not stuck on the monotony of being in the classroom all the time. This is something that takes them out of the classroom and into the science environment and it's something that's fun!” says Dr MacDonald.

•  Science Bulletins

This is a multimedia and video based product that tells stories of scientists at work in a manner in which can be understood by the general public. These can also be used to develop exhibits and displays and as teaching and learning resources.

•  Urban Advantage

This programme was conceived on the premise that because school children in the urban areas have an advantage of having access to museums, science centres and zoos, these should be used to further enhance science learning. Urban advantage challenges learners in middle schools to come up with projects that demonstrate problem solving in mathematics and science programmes. All the projects are exhibited at a science expo at the museum for all participating schools on New York .

“My dream is to see this programme replicated in other states and for us to follow the participants of this programme to determine if they eventually continue with science and take up careers in science,” says MacDonald.

•  Resources for learning

These include online resources in the form of databases of information for teachers and school children.

“Our interaction with our counterparts in the United States has shown that teachers are all faced with the same challenges. We are looking forward to collaborative work that can be done with the NRF and AMNH,” says Damonse.

The delegation from AMNH will be visiting all NRF's research facilities in the coming week to learn more about how things are done in South Africa and how ideas and information can be exchanged. This also includes the exchange of ideas on resources as well as training and human capacity development, particularly for science teachers and learners.