Three countries with vastly different education, science, and biotechnology infrastructures are now bonded in a common goal—bringing hands-on biotech labs to underserved students. Each program is taking a unique approach to serving teachers and students in a way that will bring biotech education to life in the Global South. In the second post of this three-part series, we introduce you to ABE South Africa.
Growing Community in South Africa
At ABE South Africa, the programming goes beyond the classroom, to build awareness of and interest in biotechnology within the broader Johannesburg community. Coordinated from the largest science center in Southern Africa, Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, the program delivers ABE labs to disadvantaged students in the region, as well as runs weekend workshops to increase understanding of the biosciences among members of the general public.
Led by Akash Dusrath of Sci-Bono, the ABE South Africa program just successfully completed its pilot year and, like ABE Brazil, is already looking toward new ways to expand its offerings and help broaden the landscape for the biosciences in South Africa. “It’s a matter of showing students the diverse opportunities that exist within this space,” he says. “Just because you're an engineer doesn't mean you can't work at a bank. And so sometimes we limit ourselves to what we know as being the norm, such as working in a laboratory if you have a biochemistry degree. But at the end of the day, we want to equip students with skills that enable innovation.” With a background in microbiology and biochemistry, Dusrath experienced this firsthand in transitioning to being science communicator, now working as the senior manager of the Science Centre at Sci-Bono.
At Sci-Bono, Dusrath is looking to grow the hands-on bioscience offerings. While the region once had an active biotechnology program, resources were limited for activities with schools and the public. Dusrath is hoping to change this with new material and offerings, including through the ABE labs.
Since ABE South Africa began, they have run a new set of workshops at the science center for families as well as taken the labs to local science festivals, public events, and conferences. At the same time, the program has trained some 20 teachers to then run the labs with students in disadvantaged communities.
The teachers, Dusrath says, are excited and passionate about the subject matter and about enhancing how they teach it. The ABE labs provide the equipment and an extension of the concepts taught in the classroom, making the learning fun while enabling growth and professional development among the teachers.
“The level of support that we have received as a site from the ABE Program Office is phenomenal,” Dusrath says. The biggest challenge was with procuring the equipment as it is not readily available in the country. The less challenging part was connecting the science center with local schools and teachers, which was greatly assisted through the science center’s affiliation with the local provincial education department.
“We have that support from our education department, as they want more schools to be involved in the program and to be exposed to these types of activities to enhance understanding of bioscience concepts within the classroom,” Dusrath says. “It helps the teachers when the students are enjoying the content and seeing how it is applied in the real world. This also enables the students to make more informed decisions when they are choosing subjects in school as well as the career path they wish to follow.”
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Read Part 1 of this series, ABE's Expansion to the Global South: Brazil.