Numeric Math Camp Fun

A few weeks ago, some of my colleagues and I got to spend a morning at the Numeric Math Camp which was held over the course of a week at UCT. We got to interact and chat to learners from Gr 6 - Gr 8 and really had a fun time. 

Numeric is an after school program which uses Khan Academy to expose learners in low income areas to maths and aims to improve maths scores in those areas by focussing on the basics and letting learners go at their own pace. To find out a bit more about Numeric, click here. This maths camp gives some of the top learners in the program a chance to gain some more exposure to maths in a fun and engaging environment and find out why maths is relevant later in life. 

I gave a fun talk on "My Maths Story", where I shared my maths journey. Starting from the age of 16, I explained the impact of Maths and Computer Science on my life and how Maths enabled me to pursue a career in Engineering and Software Development. I also explored the various careers I was interested in over the course of my schooling, illustrating how Maths was required in order to study all of the degrees I was interested in. I explained one or two simple engineering concepts that require maths and finished off with a few maths tips that I have learnt along the way.

It's always a bit nerve-wrecking standing in front of a lecture hall (probably the engineer in me coming out) and I often find that it takes me a few minutes to settle into my presentation and get comfortable in front of a big group of people, but by the time I had established that the majority of these kids knew about the CSI and NCIS TV programs, I had got into my stride and really enjoyed giving the rest of my presentation, you should hopefully be able to click through my presentation below*. The rest of the morning my colleagues played some fun maths activities with the learners, teaching them about binary numbers, the basics of image processing, sorting logic and ordering. 

Numeric also put together a video of their 2015 Math Camp - see if you can spot me!

* I used Prezi to create this presentation, it's a great alternative to Power Point!

No Comment

The other day one of my co-workers asked our office (comprising of me and another co-worker) if we'd been following the Rhodes Statue issue and whether we had read any of the comments that people leave behind on the various social media posts. Of course, being in South Africa and all 3 of us former UCT students, we'd have to be living with our heads in the sand if we hadn't heard at least a bit about this, even if it was just a passing comment from a friend. 

I often find myself going to the comments section of things and so, yes, I had read those comments. One thing that struck us both was that we couldn't believe the feelings of nastiness, venom and (dare I say it) hate that people spew forth in many of the comments that follow social media posts on this issue (and many issues like it). 

I could feel our hearts silently breaking. There we were, sitting together in their office, pondering how, in this day and age, there could still be so many people out there with absolutely no willingness to engage with others, to learn from others, the various commenters so sure that they and they alone are right. 

We chatted for a few minutes trying to put into words how unbelievable we found this. Eventually the only way that we could describe how appalled we were was to say that those comments left us speechless...

Cape Town Fire Pictures

Last night was the second night in a row that Frosty joined the VWS (Volunteer Wildfire Services) team to go and battle the fire that is making it's way through the south peninsula in Cape Town. 

Twice, he's gone from work to the VWS Newlands base ready to be deployed to fight this incredible fire, popping in at home only to get supplies and for a quick nap yesterday afternoon - he got back at 4.30 yesterday morning and at 6.30 this morning. I know that many of the other volunteers do exactly the same - working a full day and then at night giving up their time and efforts to help fight fires.

What Can You Do To Help The Fire Fighters?

Donations of food are coming in fast, but I know that food isn't the only thing that the VWS team are in need of. 

Instead of spending money buying ingredients to make sarmies for these brave fire fighters, why don't you donate that cash to them instead. EFT it or drop off the cash at one of their bases. If you take a browse through their website and Facebook page, you will see that they're requesting:

• donations of money
• gift vouchers for food that they can use in the future
• services (such as people who know how to fix land rovers)

in order to help them buy or fix other necessities that are required for fighting the fire. Yes, the teams get hungry when they're fighting fires (and the people who bring food are the favourites with hungry fire fighters), but if they don't have any money they won't have any equipment (think vehicles, Personal Protective Equipment {PPE}, petrol, fire fighting tools, pen and paper, radio equipment etc) to fight the fire to begin with! 

Also, please remember that the fire fighting crews have gone through special training in order to enable them to fight these fires. So as much as you may want to go and join the teams on the fire, don't. You will endanger yourself and the teams that are already on the mountain. Instead, join up with VWS, go through their training program and then be one of the trained guys fighting a fire next time it happens. There are certain protocols and procedures that need to be followed in order to ensure everyone's safety that you won't know about unless you've been trained.

The night before last I drove through to have dinner with my mum who has been running a course in the same area and I decided that I may as well take my camera with me to snap a few shots on my way to and from dinner. Here they are:

A weather update for March 4th: At about 11:30 this morning, there was a bit of a pitter-patter of rain (and even some thunder!) outside my office in Kenilworth, so hopefully this makes it's way down south to give those fighting the fire a bit of help!

The #SouthAfricanTag

I was recently tagged by the author of Closet Freedom in a #SouthAfricanTag in order to give exposure to more South African bloggers and build up the blogging community in South Africa. I really liked this idea and I'm also very proudly South African, so here are my answers to the questions for the #SouthAfricaTag. I've re-worded a few of the questions, so if you would like to take part, visit this post from Closet Freedom to get the original questions.

If you'd like to participate, please do so and leave a comment at the bottom of this post so I can get to learn a bit more about you! In addition to this, to keep the tag moving I'm tagging Candice and Jodi across at The Turquoise Teapot (you can change question 1 to tea ;) ) as well as Gaelyn from Heart of Iron to take part.

1. How many cups of coffee do you have per day? What type of coffee and why?

Usually I only have one cup of coffee per day. The first thing I do when I get to work in the morning is brew and pour myself a cup of whatever filter coffee is in our coffee jar at work, then I plan my morning and go through e-mails before getting a real start on the day. If it's the weekend I will sometimes have a second cup in the afternoon, but if I have too much coffee I end up feeling jittery and nervous, so I try to limit myself (in which case I'll drink tea instead).

2. Favourite part of your Sunday dish?

Sunday dishes vary every week, sometimes it's a meal out and sometimes it's a braai at home. But I would say that no matter what I'm eating, my favourite part of Sunday dishes is sharing a meal with family or friends!

3. What sports team would you spend most of Saturday watching while enjoying a classic South African braai?

I'm not the biggest sports fan, but I would most probably end up watching the rugby while enjoying a braai on a Saturday. Although, when Soccer World Cup fever hits every 4 years, I do enjoy getting into the spirit and following a team through the tournament! So I would probably do that over World Cup time.

4. Favourite and most annoying South African word/phrase ?

Favourite: "takkies" and "magies vol, ogies toe".
Most annoying: "jirre" and "now now".

5. South African treat?

Wedgewood nougat - you can't beat it (and it's made close to where I grew up!).

6. Which SA DJ rocks your socks?

Good question - probably Ryan O'Connor from Kfm because I listen to him every morning on my way to work.

7. Favourite SA personality? Why?

I'm not a huge "celebrity" follower, internationally or locally, but I would say that Trevor Noah is my favourite at the moment as he uses humour to address South African issues in a way that all South Africans can relate to and laugh about.

8. Favourite province? Its main attraction?

This is a difficult one. I think each of the provinces has so much to offer and it's own unique flavour. I haven't travelled to all of them yet and don't think I could choose a favourite, but I would like to say that the provinces that surprised me the most when I visited them last year were Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Completely different from what I was expecting!

9. How many South African languages can you speak?

Embarrassingly, I can only really speak English fluently. I can stammer please and thank you in Afrikaans and Zulu, along with a smattering of other phrases, but that's about it.

10. Favourite South African Song?

Dance Sum More by Mango Groove. Actually, I love all their music and I had as much as possible of their music on a South African playlist to remind me of home when I went to the USA just after graduation.

11. TV show watched by most South Africans that's also a must-watch in your family?

We don't have a TV (it's wonderful, more people should try it) and so I have no idea what's happening in the world of TV shows! However, when we do sit down to watch a series, Big Bang Theory is one that keeps us giggling for hours (the engineers in us love the nerdy science jokes that they crack)!