Original Story Published by: Artur Donaldson for Physics World
Photo Source: Artur Donaldson
(Above) Potential energy: Artur Donaldson speaks to students about the physics of the pendulum.
In this guest blog Artur Donaldson – a physics undergraduate at Imperial College London – reflects on his experience of teaching physics in Africa and explains how digital technology can be used to spark an interest in physics, even in areas with poor Internet connectivity.
We met Mr Odhiambo at the base of the hill which rises above Maseno University in Western Kenya. I am grateful he has invited me and two Kenyan mathematicians visit the school where he teaches. My mathematician colleagues, Lazarus Kioko and John Maina, are members of the African Maths Initiative (AMI) — an organization whose mission is to strengthen the culture of mathematics across Africa.
I am a physics undergraduate at Imperial College London and I was in Kenya recently with two objectives: to encourage more Kenyan students to study physics and to see how technology can be used in teaching physics.
My visit with Odhiambo happened just as I had finished helping to teach physics at a week-long maths camp organized jointly by AMI and its UK counterpart Supporting African Maths Initiatives (SAMI). The annual camp is an initiative to inspire high school students to study maths and science at university by giving them creative classes organized in collaboration involving local and international academics.
Fostering academic relations
Since its foundation in 2011, thousands of young people have been hosted at the camp and the initiative has been replicated in several other countries across Africa including Ghana, Ethiopia and Tanzania. In fact, some former students have returned to the maths camp as teachers, having graduated in maths at university. Furthermore, the camps help to foster academic relations across continents through the collaboration between international and local academics who give the classes.
To read the full article, visit Physics World.
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