Yebo Gogga Yebo amaBlomo thrills
- By Wits University
The annual Yebo Gogga Yebo amaBlomo exhibition currently underway at Wits is proving to be more than an adventure into the hidden world, offering a range of lessons.
Brooke Tucker and her three children are among today’s visitors at the animal and plant exhibition. For her, the two-floor exhibition which allows revellers to get up-close and personal with nature is a wonderful opportunity to supplement her home-schooled children’s education. Having moved to South Africa only a year ago, the Wits trip is not only a lesson in life sciences but builds on her Johannesburg experience.
Since the opening of the exhibition on Wednesday, 8 May 2013, the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences has hosted hundreds of visitors. A large majority of these are learners and teachers from Johannesburg schools and crèches with the early part of each day seeing the most number of visitors.
Grade 10 learners from Queens High School in Bezuidenhout Valley could be seen furiously taking down notes as they moved from one exhibition to the next seeping information from the experts manning the desks. Non-believers in the existence of dinosaurs, Sarah Milikwini, Joy Olanrewaju and Ketsia Luneko, had their views shattered upon encountering a model of gorgonopsian, a mammal-like reptile found in South Africa and lived over 255 million years ago.
The Yebo Gogga Yebo amaBlomo exhibition is a unique annual Johannesburg event that brings animals and plants together under one roof complete with tailor-made talks from experts, making it a fun and educational experience for kids and nature lovers of all ages. Over 30 exhibitors are part of this showcase concluding on Sunday, 12 May 2013.
Equally excited and caught in the buzz of the learning experience are Wits senior students who have committed their time to support the event by acting as tour guides or sharing their areas of interest with the public.
Maitse Monye, a third year zoology and ecology student has renewed respect for the teaching profession having been faced with inquisitive minds and some disengaged learners at his desk.
“I’ve seen three different categories of learners – those who know about termites from home because of their surroundings; those who have learnt about them from discovery channels; and those who are uninformed and underexposed to nature,” he says.
His guests have given him much think about and some which he says could be research questions at postgraduate level.
While many of the lessons are academic, for the group manning the welcome area, their discussion ranges from which are better to manage – girl or boy groups; and some are life lessons on whether they should have kids or not having got a taste of adult responsibility.
Since its launch Yebo Gogga has proved to be a success with over 8 000 visitors and 26 schools flocking to the show annually. The interactive exhibition provides an educational and social outreach service to the Gauteng community by addressing shortfalls in teaching life sciences at schools by means of the provision of live animals and plants which form an interactive framework round a theme and thus an educational situation for learners that is not encountered in the classroom. This year's theme is Underground and is going deep below teh surface to familiarise visitors with the earth's inhabitants.
This interactive exhibition is a joint effort by the School of Animal, Plantand Environmental Sciences at Wits University; Johannesburg based societies, government and environmental organisations.
Opening times:
09:00 - 16:00 Weekedays
10:00 - 16:00 Weekend
Venue: Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building, East Campus, Wits University
More info: www.wits.ac.za/YeboGogga
2013 YEBO GOGGA YEBO AMABLOMO DISPLAYS
- Secret spiders underground by Spider Club of SA
- Secret Life of Biological Control Agents by BIOCONTROL – AP&ES
- Asbestos : Wonder Fibre –Serial Kiler; Adler Museum
- Underwater World by Abby’s Aquarium
- Undercover Agents, insects of medical importance by Medical Entomology
- Journey to the Centre of the Earth by School of Geosciences
- Life under the microscope by School of Molecular and Cell Biology
- Conserving wildlife: inspiring the world by Free Me Wild Life
- Wild About legs by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)
- Low Down on Cockroaches by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)
- Goggas from the past by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)
- Secrets from the Underground by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)
- To the power of Slime by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)
- Earthworm Mother nature’s recyclers by Earthworm Buddies
- Don’t go underground, take action by CoAction Group
- Underground Treasures by City Parks
- Cared for Underground: Only to Fly free by Lepidopterist Society of SA
- Water: Under US, Over US, All Around by Rand Water
- Nature’s Prehistoric Giants by RhinoSA
- Buried Treasure-plant style by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)
- Finding the Past Underground by School of Geosciences
- Animals dig the Zoo by Johannesburg Zoo
- Go underground for the Small Five by SANPARKS Honorary Rangers
- Let us Take you on an underground Trip by Delta Park Environmental Centre
- Bad Buddies – Animal parasites by National Zoological Gardens
- Low Down and Underground by Snake City
- The Buzz Underground by Southern Beekeepers Association
- Trees- an underground movement by Grow-A-Tree
- Trees Grow underground by Tree Society of SA
- Underground protectors by Gauteng Conservancy and Stewardship Association
- Amphibians, a wet life by Life Sciences Museum, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES)