Future Engineers of South Africa from 43 Primary Schools across Gauteng will present their innovative soccer stadia at the LEGO Stadium Building awards ceremony taking place at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, Saturday 12 June, 14h00 – 16h00.
In collaboration with LEGO Education and the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre selected a cross section of 43 schools across the province to participate in the stadium building competition co-facilitated by Hands on Technologies (a South African agent of LEGO Education).
In 2009, Michael Peter (Chief Operating Officer, Sci-Bono) approached Brent Hutcheson of Hands on Technology to explore the possibilities of using LEGO as a tool to share the technology behind the building of stadia. “As a football fan, I have visited some of the world’s top stadia and have been truly impressed by the quality and architecture of our newly built stadia in South Africa. There is so much mathematics, science and technology to be learnt through engineering that we wanted to give learners not just a chance to play with LEGO, but to provide them with an opportunity to realize the relationship and synergy between our new stadia and the stadium that they would build through the competition”, Michael Peter.
Each participating school from as far afield as Orange Farm and Vanderbyl Park, received a donation of R50 000 worth of LEGO. In order to qualify for entry, schools committed to an educational process designed to teach engineering principles. At the first meeting the objectives, rules and ordering of LEGO kits was explained to the teams of ten Grade 7 learners. Schools were restricted to only using the LEGO ordered and were provided with standard sized boards to build their stadium on. A 50 000 piece LEGO stadium was built by South African Jason Datnow and put on display at Sci-Bono as a demo model for schools. A mini stadium building competition was held at Bathabile Primary and Danish master builder, Bo Jensen was on hand to assist the learners with design ideas and building basics. Equipped with these skills, schools were given a month to complete their stadium. Over 2.36 million pieces of LEGO was sorted and distributed to the schools.
On Saturday, 12 June the six judges, Michael Renvillard, LEGO Education & LEGO Foundation, Kevin Rafferty, Ex Professional Soccer Player - Wits University, Christo Jones and Dawn Crawford, GDE, Gary Marais, CEO Royal Johannesburg Golf Club and Zola Kgaka, South African Institute of Architecture will evaluate the entries according to the following key categories: presentation; technical, creativity, innovation and team spirit. “The learners have more than surprised us with the technical ability, attention to detail and creativity evident in each entry. I am not envious of the difficult task facing the judges on Saturday,” says Brent Hutcheson. Every learner will receive a prize courtesy of LEGO. The total value of the LEGO donations including prizes is valued at over R1 million.
Media attending the prize giving on Saturday are invited to interview learners and teachers to find out firsthand the impact of the project on participants.
On Monday, 14 June the top fifteen schools will be honoured at a ceremony with the MEC of Education, Barbara Creecy and the Danish Minister of Culture and Sports, Mr. Per Stig Møller. The official awards will take place at the Sci-Bono Discovery between 9:00 and 10:00 and will include the ‘kick off’ of the Robocup Soccer. Robocup Soccer is an international robotics competition designed to inspire research into Artificial Intelligence. The 2010 Robocup finals will take place in Singapore.
“The World Cup Soccer will probably only come to African once in my lifetime. Here is a chance to share the hype, the enthusiasm and the positive energy that children in this country feel right now. If Africa hopes to stage world events like this in the future, it will be in the hands of the very children we aim to involve right now.”, Brent Hutcheson.
The South African LEGO Stadium Competition compliments the Sci-Bono Science of Soccer Exhibition. The schools entries will be open for public viewing throughout the June/ July Holidays.
For more information contact:
Thandi O’Hagan
Senior PR & Marketing Manager
Sci-Bono Discovery Centre
Cell: 082 450 3356
Tel: 011 639 8428
E-mail:thandi@sci-bono.co.za
Charles Phahlane
Head of Communication
Gauteng Department of Education
Tel: 011 355 1530
Cell: 071 860 4496
E-mail: Charles.Phahlane@gauteng.gov.za
Issued by: Gauteng Department of Education
11 June 2010
