Workshop sparks interest in coding

IN a bid to advance the

STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects at rural schools, a Girls in Control workshop was hosted by a Zululand NPO last week.

I Learn to Live-Ngifundela Ukuphila teamed up with Unizulu specialist in automation and control, Professor Syamala Krishnannair from the Department of Mathematical Sciences to host the workshop at Ntshidi Primary School.

Seventy-nine girls aged

9 to 13 benefitted from the workshop which included control engineering.

The first session introduced the fundamentals of a feedback loop in isiZulu, demonstrating its application in real-life control problems.

The material covering control theoretic principles with practical examples was initially developed by the International Federation of Automatic Control. This was translated into isiZulu to provide the girls with insight into exciting career opportunities in control engineering and related STEM fields.

The second session focused on coding using SCRATCH and hands-on activities in the robotics workshop to give the girls a taste of control engineering.

The robotics and scratch coding workshops introduced programming skills, as well as analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills needed in STEM fields.

The workshop was a great success with plans to extend to other schools in the Zululand region.

Girls in Control was made possible by Prof Syamala Krishnannair (co-ordinator and organiser), Diloshini Thambran (co-ordinator at Unizulu

Science Centre), I Learn to

Live (NGO), and Department of Mathematical Sciences postgraduate student Siyabonga Msweli.

School principal Mr Zibani (seated, middle), Prof Syamala (seated, right), Mr Mbuthu (right, standing), with the Unizulu Science Centre and I Learn to Live teams

Ntshidi Primary schoolgirls hard at work in the practical session of the workshop

Learning about coding and robotics

Proud of their wind turbine creation