Ask Prof Ron - 14 February 2012
My Development Team (Every1Mobile) for the My YESA Passport suggested that we call the pilot project “Ask Prof Ron.” This was to be a service to the YESA Community to ask any question relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Innovation (STEMI). It soon became evident after a soft launch on 5th October 2011 that many learners did not have access to educational resources to find out information for themselves.I suspect that many of them were accessing the service from the back seat of a Taxi.
The types of questions ranged from ‘What are those white things in the sky?’ to ‘What are worm holes?. I got the impression that ..
there were some serious gaps in the learning pathways of users in these communities given the fact that this service is being used across 20 different countries in Africa. It would be great to translate this into other African languages to expand the service.
There have been some interesting trends and in time I will report on them once a working database has been established. One interesting trend has been the urgent requirement for career guidance as well as basic sex education. This has been a tough judgement call but if one pauses for a moment and wonders where these questions are coming from, I felt morally obliged to provide the basic facts of life with a plug for AIDs testing, abstinence, contraception, love, the rights of the unborn child, etc.
The average since the launch has hovered around the 7 questions per day but it is getting too much for one person. Alternative support is being sought through local universities as well as an upgrade of the system to cope with multiple authors.
If you are interested please visit MXit:-
- Tradepost
- MXit Reach
- Science Room
- YESA.
Join this growing community and if you feel compelled join the back end to make a contribution in a different way. 9000 users can’t be wrong with just under 600 000 pages served last month.
The following are just some of the questions asked. The ‘interesting’ names of the users have been removed as this is a learning experience on its own.:-
Wednesday, 5 October, 2011
- Why is the sky Blue?
- What is lightning?
- Why are plants green?
- How does cloning work?
- What is a resistor?
- What is mitosis
- Why can it be dangerous to touch a charged capacitor?
- What is miosis
- Wat is allopatric speciation
- Hw does ovulation occur?
- Can you explain the BIG BANG THEORY
- Because all things are made from elements, from which elements are our bodies made?
- What is a rainbow?
- Which subjects can a learner pick in order to become an inventor?
- Between caffeine and alcohol which 1 can kill a human faster if overdosing?
Monday, 13 February
- What is Eskom Expo
- Hai prof?does a human clone live the same life as a normal human being?is a clone a normal human being?do clones really exist?is it possible to clone humans?.
- what hapens durng sex nd y do ple seem to njy it??
- please write me a science poem
- My honourable prof, i would like to know what are the safe-days and when are they? By sphelele.
- Hey prof! I am a mosotho boy aged 21,i was in the university of lesotho doing Bsc general,bt unfortunatly i failed my first year. I want to know if its still possible for me to go and study in south africa,but still taking the same course or medicine? I did a lot of community services but dont have proof to show it!
- What is the cause of a supernova
- Hi prof, i would to know what a neurosurgeon is and what it does?
- Why and how are atoms conserved during chemical reaction?
- Momentum
- Is it true that they is a place called broca in d human brain
- Wat iz the earth
- What the thing that are carry the baby in the stomach
- What is isotope?
- How does a weight pulls everythng torward it centre and why it do so?
- Hi Prof, i would like to know how old are people who were born on the 29th of february 1992 because of the so-called leap year?
- What are vains
- Chemical formula of steel
It makes for interesting reading as well as careful interpretation at times.