Cosmos Education Kenya

Holiday Science Learning Camp, Day 5 – Friday 23, 2007

Today was the fifth day of the HSLC. The day being a Friday, everyone was upbeat – I guess from the fact that it is an official day out for most Nairobians. However, the general feeling was that of reluctance – participants not wanting to accept the fact that the camp was coming to an end! No one was ready to let go!

Figure 1: "Science for me." an excited pupil during the opening session, courtesy of Carol and Dickson.

We left the office at exactly 9 am and by 20 past 9 we were all at the school where we found the pupils expectantly waiting for us. The pupils were once again ready for our inexhaustible hands on experiments on diverse science subjects.

Figure 2: Liz and Alice explaining the intricacies of Decryption and Encryption to class six pupils.
We were served with porridge – Kenyan Hospitality, and thereafter Beatrice presented the day to the Almighty before Carol and Dickson opened the day’s session with a variety of chants – to get the already psyched up pupils even more pumped up.

Figure 3:"This is how your scores will be

recorded." Angie taking class six pupils through a bowling experiment.

The pupils thereafter, broke into their respective groups and our volunteers got down into serious business, of course not forgetting our third most serious rule – HAVE FUN! The sessions were punctuated with topics like Pythagoras theorem, finding pi, calculating volume of cylinders, measuring the height of a tree, et cetera – a confirmation that it was a MATHEMATICS DAY. This however did not deter the pupils from having fun – COSMOS EDUCATION is known for making science a fun experience and that is exactly what happened.

Figure 4: "When I grow up I wanna be an Engineer." A class four pupil shares his dream!

After lunch, the Roots group from Mathare came to give a talk to the lower primary pupils. They spoke on different issues, but the bottom line was – “Stay in School, Avoid Drugs and Bad Company, Dream Big and Respect your Parents and your teachers.”

Figure 5: A Roots group member from Mathare takes class four pupils through the "I Pepeta" song

Meanwhile, our teachers were doing what they do best with the upper classes as the volunteers did a recap of the morning sessions and brainstormed on the best closing style for the final day of the camp – Saturday.

Figure 6: Dr. Bridgit knows how to implement our third "most serious" rule - HAVE FUN!!

At the end of the forty five minutes, the Roots Group had done their thing – so did our teachers. Caitlin and Ben did the closing. It was such a fulfilling day and at the end of the day our tag line had been effected: Inspire, Engage, Empower. I could tell from the look on the pupils’ faces that they really had been inspired, engaged and empowered.

Figure 7: "Cosmos Education is......" Isaac explaining a few things about CE to the African Youth Congress Delegates who had paid MCEDO a visit.

SCIENCE FOR MCEDO… SCIENCE FOR ME…… SCIENCE FOR MATHARE…… That was the chant as we hoped into our waiting van and reluctantly left behind the MCEDONIANS!!!!!