As part of the National Science Week taking place during 4 to 9 August 2014, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) will be hosting various activities within Soweto, at UJ’s Soweto Science Centre, the North West Province’s Khayakulu Community hall in the Bojanala District along with the Miriyavhavha Technical School and Mukula Senior School in the Limpopo Province.
 

The National Science Week, which will be opened at the University of the Free State on Saturday, 02 August by Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, is an initiative by the Department of Science and Technology that is run in all nine provinces in various venues and is implemented by the South Africa Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAATA).
 

With fourteen academic departments that boast state of the art research facilities within UJ’s Faculty of Science, Prof Annah Moteetee, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Science reiterates that science is vibrant, dynamic, diverse and is the backbone of society that we live in. “It is important that from a young age we nurture the inquisitive minds of the youth as the future of science ultimately lies in their hands. We at the University are proud to be a part of the National Science Week and look forward to educating attendees at our venues about the importance of Science,” says Prof Moteetee.
 

Professors and lecturers from UJ’s respective faculties of Science, Health Sciences and Engineering and the Built Environment will be onsite assisting with the running of interactive events that will be on show at all three provinces. Some of the events include scientific experimentation and expo’s, public lectures, science and mathematics shows, teaching workshops, astronomy quizzes and career festivals in the faculties of science, health sciences, engineering and the built environment.
 

“Our programme of events will take place in all three provinces of Gauteng, North West and Limpopo simultaneously and we will be using the popular social site Skype to check in on all the activities in all the provinces. The most exciting event of the many events on offer is the live time virtual tour that we will have of the world’s biggest laboratory which is the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland”, says Prof Azwinndini Muronga, Associate Professor and Director of the Soweto Science Centre at UJ.
 

For more information on the activities taking place at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto Science Centre you can log onto their website www.uj.ac.za <http://www.uj.ac.za/> or call (011) 559-4555 or follow them on social media with the hashtag #UJScienceWeek on Facebook/UJ or Twitter @MediaUJ for more information.

For Media Enquiries Contact:

Tim Hill/Kwazi Ngubane                                    Herman Esterhuizen
Conversation Capital                                        University of Johannesburg
Tel: (082) 837-2161/(073) 442-9347                   (011) 559-6653