Sci-Enza back with a bang, bigger and better!

Since opening our doors to the public on 19 July 2022 after being closed for 2 years due to the pandemic, the centre has been buzzing with a variety of visitors. Ranging from young and older school learners, their teachers and parents, university students, to even staff members from other departments in the university. This shows that people have been yearning to experience the fun and interactive science that Sci-Enza provides, as much as Sci-Enza has been longing to host them.

We have been inundated with individual requests and school visits that are keeping us very busy. Apart from that, we have successfully hosted 2 holiday programmes since we opened, for which the tickets were sold out. Both learners and parents explained how they missed coming to the holiday programmes and even asked when the next one will take place.

Another highlight was the visits from Deputy High Commission David Geyer from the Australian High Commission in South Africa and Dr Graham Walker from the Australian National University. Dr Graham presented Science Circus shows and the tickets were sold out for this special science shows. The Sci-Enza visitors were ecstatic about the shows! A few parents commented that they were thrilled by the “fantastic show” and that it was very inspiring. While other parents stated that their children were so excited that they could not stop talking about the great time they had at the show. Some mentioned that they even tried a few of the easier experiments they saw from Dr Graham, but they ended up having to clean the mess they made on their ceiling.

While our visitors have been excited for Sci-Enza to be opened, the Sci-Enza staff had been waiting for 2 years in anticipation to opening our doors. “We never thought there would be a day where we missed the laughter and cheerful chattering of our visitors”, said Ms Puleng Tsie, the centre’s manager. However, we used that time to prepare for a time when we will open.

It has been quite a shift opening to the public. Moremi Melato, an intern at Sci-Enza, who started working here during the pandemic when the centre was still closed to the public, said “when the centre opened it was intimidating and overwhelming because we were only familiar with presenting to senior staff with no crowd”. He continued, “the workload also increased due to the opening, but with enough practise that we had while the centre was closed, we were able to present programs to the visitors. Presenting in front of the crowds has built my confidence and improved my skills of communicating science to other people”. Precious Makau, also an intern at Sci-Enza added, “it has been quite a learning journey, not a smooth one but worth it. We learn new things every day, interact with different people with a goal of making science accessible in a fun and entertaining way. I am definitely becoming a better person”. These sentiments were also shared by other interns.

What is next for the Sci-Enza science centre is even bigger and more exciting holiday programs, hosting more special science shows and talks by renowned experts and launching the UP research showcase exhibition in the centre, said Busisiwe Hadebe, a senior staff at Sci-Enza.