He will experience first-hand how the 'Science-made-Sensible' programme works in Miami. He will also visit the State University of New York at the beginning of May 2011 to pursue a joint research project focusing on teacher migration.

Dr de Villiers' invite follows professor Michael Gaines of the University of Miami (UM), Florida in the USA, winning a supplemental National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to bring his Science Made Sensible (SMS) programme to South Africa. In August 2010, two UM SMS fellows, three Miami SMS teachers, and Professor.Gaines participated in this year’s Miami-South Africa collaboration. The international team worked with Science teachers at Sunnyside Primary School, Oost-Eind Primary School, and Zakhele Primary School, which were selected by Dr Rian de Villiers. In Miami, SMS pairs UM postgraduate student fellows in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines with local primary school Science teachers to improve the communication skills of the former and the inquiry-based teaching skills of the latter.

 Before the SMS team was introduced to the students, they visited the Faculty of Education to meet the teachers with whom they would be collaborating. During this meeting, the SMS team discussed how their programme works in Miami, and why they had come to South Africa, as well as what they hoped to learn and share during the South African partnership. They discussed common challenges, class material, and best practices in teaching. SMS team members were assigned to one of the three schools selected by the Faculty of Education. They were joined by a University of Pretoria postgraduate student, who is currently an intern at Sci-Enza. 

The SMS team and their South African partners developed lesson plans consistent with the South African National Curriculum Statements. These lesson plans have since been incorporated into both Miami and South African classrooms. 

Professor Gaines is applying for an NSF grant to return next year during Science Week. The plan is to have greater participation of Sci-Enza interns and to extend the school visits from one week to two weeks.