The South African National Space Agency (SANSA), in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology, yesterday launched the pilot of its Fundisa School Education discs to all the Dinaledi schools in the country.
Fundisa Resources is a data disc with data sets and tools specific to SA that is produced by SANSA annually. These discs are delivered to up to 16 tertiary institutions, and enable lecturers and students to make use of the data either for teaching purposes or in their research.
According to SANSA corporate communications manager Vaneshree Maharaj, the agency has simplified the data and tools on the disc so it can be used by Grade 10 to 12 learners in their school work and projects. "These resources will help raise awareness about the value satellite imagery adds to Geographic Information Systems analysis, and allow learners to have these skills already when they leave school.
"By the time the learners graduate in Grade 12, they will have a greater understanding of earth observation and can proceed to more focused studies at tertiary level."
While the Fundisa Resources disc usually contains data from three or four satellites for the whole of SA, the school education discs have each been individualised to contain scenes relating to the schools' areas of interest and surrounding communities, explains Maharaj. The satellite images can be used to observe a variety of aspects, such as growth of informal settlements, growth of urban areas and natural resources like water.
The Dinaledi programme is aimed at significantly improving performance and increasing participation in mathematics, life sciences and physical sciences in schools. There are currently 500 Dinaledi schools in the country, catering for approximately 50 000 learners.
In addition to the data discs, SANSA has launched a Fundisa portal where learners from all high schools in the country can access the latest satellite data, as well as a number of years' archived data and engage with SANSA experts.
The focus for SANSA is to bring the benefit of space science and technology investment back to South Africans through various space programmes from Earth observation and space science research, to providing space operations support and exploring the space engineering competencies through development of our next satellite, says Maharaj.
The launch of the Fundisa School Education disc forms part of SANSA's celebrations of World Space Week.
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