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Barbara Mayer, a retired teacher from Hawaii, arrived in South Africa a few weeks ago as part of a programme called Teachers Without Borders.Mayer has come out to South Africa as part a group of 6 maths and science teachers who will lead teacher workshops at 3 different locations within South Africa; Vereeniging, Port Shepstone and Umtata.

The workshops she plans to give make use of South African National Parks as a valuable teaching resource, along with lesson plans on seasonal and lunar phases, climate, atoms and elements, among other things.

Mayer describes the workshops she will be giving as focusing on ways to teach South Africa’s natural history ‘core knowledge and concepts’ for grade 8 within the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS), namely, the “different ecosystems in South Africa”. Mayer adds, “Since the South African National Parks are ‘ecological jewels,’ often representing the best of natural landscapes and wildlife, by studying parks, students can become more familiar with the general ecology of their country”.

Explains Mayer, “the goal is for learners to become familiar with different South African national parks and their ecosystems and to develop a pride and stewardship for these national treasures”.

Learners will do this by working in a small group to create a board game, based on information about a specific South African national park. The students will use materials such as maps, posters, postcards and website information for their projects.

The games the children create should be conceptualized as something like “Snakes and Ladders” or ,”Monopoly”. In the games they create, however, the players must correctly answer questions about SANParks in order to move around the board and, hopefully, win the game. The game should have some unfortunate consequences for answering a question incorrectly, or for landing on a certain square in the game’s path, just like with standard board games.

The children are instructed to create a fact list of about 50 interesting facts about a park, including its history, climate, wildlife and vegetation. They then use simple materials to fully conceptualise the game and create the board and questions they will use. “The board itself is made from a piece of recycled cardboard that has been colored with scenes to mimic the national park, for example. Player pieces are cut out of paper and colored to represent, say, animals in the park”, Mayer explains. “The game proceeds by players correctly answering questions about the park. Once the games are made, groups rotate around the classroom to play each other’s games. Fun learning”, laughs Mayer.

“Our first workshop was completed very, very successfully in Gauteng last Friday. We have since started our second workshop, in Port Shepstone. The local teachers have been extremely hard-working, receptive, and welcoming. It continues to be a pleasure to share with them!” Mayer concludes.

Mayer will stay on as a Volunteer in South Africa at West Coast National Park when the Teachers Without Borders project is complete.