dendrite studios

Against the backdrop of a global economic crisis and an impending enviromental crisis, Magda Wierzycka writes on Moneyweb: “For the first time Generation Y is facing real difficulties which challenge their ability to make demands on others. Widespread unemployment and financial strife will challenge any feelings of entitlement. Where Generation Y has always relied on parents for financial support, the position may well reverse. Faced with the decimation of their savings the same parents may well have to turn to their Generation Y offspring for financial support going forward. Although not brought up to be responsible and accountable, Generation Y is extremely adaptable.”

The major thrust of the article is a not too glowing appraisal of those born between 1982 and 1995.

Far from growing up in prosperity and privilege, young people in South Africa have to become globally competitive despite an inadequate school system. Their inheritance in terms of economic and environmental capital is also far from desirable.

Given the state of the world that they inherit one can only hope that Generation Y will do things differently than their parents. Their adaptability and techno savvy will have to be complimented with life-long learning, innovation and a more holistic approach to tackling challenges.

Will they make it? Read here for a more detailed viewpoint.

On TED there is a video of a wonderful presentation by Ben Dunlap, the presdent of Wofford College, on lifelong learning. He tells the story of Sandor Teszla, a Hugarian holocaust survivor that became the ‘patron’ of Wofford after taking almost every course. Teszla’s life is a lesson in passionate living and lifelong learning. Click here to download the video.

(An adaption of presentation made during National Science Week)  

Last week (10 – 17 May 2008) was National Science Week  and the theme for this year was “Tomorrow’s Science & Technology is in our youth’s hands.” It is our belief that in order to succeed in that notion, we must begin to put some of today’s science & technology education in our youth’s hands.

This in no way places less emphasis on the value of educators, but perhaps means a slightly changing role. Placing science education more in the hands of the youth is also a response to a remark by Nobel Prize winning Physicist Murray Gell-Mann that, “modern science education is like being taken to the world’s greatest restaurant and being fed the menu. Students are only being shown representations of ideas and told about great discoveries rather than being helped to learn deeply for themselves.”

We are very interested in finding ways to wet children’s appetite for science and to nourish them with enriched learning. For the last 2 years we have researched educational globally. We have looked at emerging trends, technological developments and new pedagogical methodologies. While we have a special interest in life-long learning, given the needs of South Africa, we have also looked in depth at science, technology and engineering education.

Apart from research and consulting, we launched Rossum Academy  at the beginning of the year. Rossum Academy is an extra-curricular Science, Technology and Engineering Academy for children of 8 – 18. Rossum currently runs several classes a week at the MTN Sciencentre.

So after much research and 6-months of hands on experience, what have we learned in terms of science and technology education for children?

[Read more →]

Android like robots have been the fascination of science fiction writers for many years. From C-3PO in Star Wars, Andrew in Bicentennial Man to Sonny the ‘special’ NS-5 robot in I Robot. Many academic researchers have complained that these fictional and cinematic creations have made people expect too much from robotics early on, and when engineers failed to deliver they lost interest in the subject.

Yet, steady progress has been made continuously and the last few years have seen the first emergence of household robotics – although few of them humanoids. The most ubiquitous household robot is Roomba, a vacuum cleaner manufactured by iRobot of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Other ‘helping’ robots that have made it into households are the Aquabot Turbo for cleaning swimming pools and the Zuchetti Lanwbot that mows the lawn. According to a recent Forbes magazine article, cleaning, lawn moving and pool cleaning robots are expected to be a $1,8bn industry by 2014. [Read more →]

With the announcement of another set of disappointing matric results at the end of 2007, voices from various sectors are calling for government to do more. Spend more money, have more programs, get more involved. These cries come despite 20% of government spending already being allocated to education with the vast majority of it to primary and secondary schools.

It is however doubtful if more spending will improve matters. A 2007 research paper by Prof Servaas van der Berg of Stellenbosch University concluded: “Regional comparison shows that the weak performance of the school system cannot be ascribed to the resource endowment of the school or even to the poverty of the households from which their students are drawn.”
The study does however find that weak performance in South African schools’ can be associated with school management and functioning.

This beckons the question: If government is failing to provide better education, should the private sector not play a greater role? Two international academic studies shine light on the qualitative and quantitative value of private for-profit education.

[Read more →]

So Bali has come and gone with some hailing it a break-through and others a huge disappointment. UCT scientist Prof Harald Winkler describes the progress made there as tectonic – slow but large. I hope he is right, but cannot help to agree with John Doerr at the 2007 TED conference when, after mentioning some of the programs and policies proposed in the US, he said, “and who would have thought that all that is not enough”.

What is enough?
If one looks at the latest IPCC 4th Assessment Report you see that in order to stay below atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 450 parts per million, global emissions will have to be reduced by between 50% - 85% of 2000 levels by 2050. The 450ppm scenario is the best case discussed in the report and entails a temperature increase of 2,0°C – 2,4°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050 (note that we are already 0,7°C above pre-industrial levels so it means a further increase of 1,3°C – 1,7°C). The 20% emission reduction that is often mentioned by policy makers imply a 2,8°C – 3,2°C increase above pre-industrial levels. Another 70% increase in CO2 emissions, as we saw over the last 40 years, will lead to temperature increases of 4,0°C – 4,9°C.
If we don’t commit ourselves to the 450ppm concentration target, we should prepare for a very different world in terms of ecological diversity, where we live and what we grow. I believe it is fair to say aiming for a target of higher than 450ppm is ‘not enough’. [Read more →]

Dendrite Studios received some very favourable press with an article appearing in the ‘Sake24′ section of Die Burger, Beeld and Volkblad on Friday 18 January 2008. A copy of the article can be obtained on the Sake 24 webite.

The ‘Building well’ seminar series concluded on Tuesday 16 October with a session entitled, Getting Practical. It was indeed a fitting way to end, as this series opened up all participants’ eyes as to the urgency of designing more sustainable (session 1 & 2) and the possibilities of how to do so (session 3 & 4).

The evening’s first speaker was Glynn Morris, the founder and managing director of Agama Energy. As a qualified engineer Glynn has worked in the field of energy consulting and renewable energy for almost 20 years.

“Energy is a cross-cutting issue and consequently every decision is an energy decision”. This bold statement opened Glynn’s presentation and 15-minutes later he had convincingly laid out his reasoning for why energy decisions are so paramount.

The main reason is that a realisation of energy’s impact allows us choices and choices are important at a time when decision have to be made about our energy future. According to the 2006 World Energy Outlook the two competing visions of our energy future are under-invested, vulnerable and dirty or clean, clever and competitive. [Read more →]

What do I need to support me in order to become a more sustainable built environment professional? This is the question that opened the fourth session of Dendrite’s ‘Building well’ seminar series. All participants partnered up with one other person and got 3 minutes to share their ideas while the other person listened before the roles were reversed. The goal of this exercise, besides the answers, was to teach people a valuable skill and that is to listen without judging or without preparing a response. Some of the participants shared their thoughts with everyone and these included:

• Personal commitment and belief
• A green audit process for materials that incorporates life cycle analysis, embodied energy etc.
• A way of quickly transferring knowledge in the field
• More rapid changes in enabling legislation so that it doesn’t fall behind design trends
• 100% funding from Eskom for energy efficiency measures
• The development of technical skills [Read more →]

So climate change is a reality, water scarcity in the Western Cape a big risk, urbanisation an accelerating international trend and Cape Town still sit with pronounced economic inequality. Now what?
According to Sym van der Ryn, “the environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed, and landscapes are used.” Session three of our ‘How do we build well in a changing climate’ series therefore started to look at some responses to the ecological challenges we face with the session entitled New Design Parameters. Two very renowned Cape Town architects in the persons of Gita Goven and Alex Robertson were the evening’s main contributors. [Read more →]