The Program changes every year. As our network of connections in South Africa increases and as our relationships with the scientists, schools and communities we work with evolves; as new faculty join the program and because our students change every year, then each year is a little different to anything that has happened before. However, regardless of how the timing and the details of the activities change, we follow the same route through South Africa; each location forms a separate module and our objectives for each module stay the same.
Module 1: At Home/On-line
Week 1: Drivers of Global Change
Students are working on-line from home for the first week of the program. During this week we introduce some of the global drivers of change that are significant for understanding recent and future changes in social and ecological systems in South Africa’s Western and Eastern Cape Provinces. At the same time, we provide more orientation materials to South Africa and the Program and, through several on-line projects and discussions, students also get to know more about each other.
Module 2: Table Mountain National Park
Weeks 2 and 3: Parks, Conservation and Urban Landscapes
Students are in Cape Town and Stellenbosch. The module focus is on National Parks and conservation in urban areas but with an emphasis on communities in the townships. We also introduce regional and local climate change through lectures and discussion with the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town. The legacy of Apartheid is important for understanding rural communities in the Eastern Cape–we begin the discussion here with a visit to Robben Island. More.
Module 3: Karoo National Park
Weeks 4 and 5: Adaptation to Limited Resources
The Karoo is a semi-arid region in-land from the coastal mountains. Our focus here is on ecological and social adaptation to limited resources–in this case water. The Karoo National Park is home to the endemic Cape Mountain Zebra as well as a number of species that are particularly adapted to the dry landscape. The &People component are the Coloured farming communities near Beaufort West. The Karoo also holds large reserves of shale gas and “fracking” is a controversial topic in the region. More
Module 4: Addo Elephant Park
Week 6: Parks, Conservation and Poaching
Established in 1931 to save the last remaining 11 elephants from a herd that had been hunted almost to extinction, Addo Elephant Park is now home to over 600 African elephants as well as the other four “big five” species: rhino, African lion, African leopard, Cape buffalo. The Park faces issues of overpopulation and extinction and highlights the difficulties of conserving a complete ecosystem. The people at the focus of this module are the Park game rangers. More
Module 5: Private Game Reserves
Week 7: Conservation Versus Tourism
Tourism is big business in South Africa and our route from Addo takes us past some of the larger private game reserves. Some private reserves exist strictly for tourism; others, including ones we will visit, attempt to balance tourism with a goal of conservation and education. The &People in this module are the tourists. Students not only discuss whether the conservation goals of these reserves are compatible with tourism, but also examine their own role in South Africa–are they themselves tourists, or not? More
Module 6: Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve
Weeks 8-10: Communicating Science Across Cultures and Generations
A lot has happened in the first seven weeks of the program: ecological research in the parks, social surveys in the communities, interacting with students in elementary schools, constructing systems diagrams, writing magazine articles, developing small business plans…and much more. Everything comes together in Dwesa-Cwebe and its neighboring villages, culminating in a science fair conducted by the Parks and People students for the local elementary schools, in collaboration with the Donald Woods Foundation. More
Module 7: Wilderness National Park
Week 11: Making Sense of it All
We are halfway back to Cape Town and the end of the program. A short stay in Wilderness National Park gives us a chance to slow down, reflect on everything that has happened and talk about what it all means. What have we learned, what about us has changed, how do we make the most of this experience, and where do we go from here. The &People component of this module is ourselves. More
There are other elements of the program–the pillars around which everything else is built–and these will also happen every year:
- Social and ecological research studies: These introduce students to research methodologies in natural and social sciences and incorporate discussion of ethics and human subjects research. Students are engaged in on-going research projects with South African scientists. In the past this has been in collaboration with the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency and the research in the reserves and their surrounding communities has been driven by Parks Board needs. From 2016, the research will be in the Karoo National Park and will form part of a long-term ecological study by researchers at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
- Science Fair: Parks and People students work with faculty from the Penn State College of Education and with teachers from the State College School District to develop the skills necessary to conduct a science fair for elementary school children in rural schools in the Eastern Cape. The fair incorporates natural science demonstrations as well as a play and story telling that uses a Xhosa folk tale to address several science concepts. This is conducted in Xhosa and English and involves the school children in illustrating scenes from the story. The illustrations and text (along with the science) are turned into a book, and copies of the book are later distributed to all of the participants.
- Reaching outward: A significant component of the program is formal and informal science education. Students use social media platforms to engage a broader community back on campus in discussions of sustainability, conservation and other science topics. Some of this is informal–linking with residence halls or a variety of student groups, other linkages connect the Parks and People students to several residential courses on campus.
- Reflection: Taking time to reflect on and to process everything that is happening is critical. We use public and private journals as well as video and photo essays and discussion sessions to help students understand what they are experiencing, to see the relationships between local and global, to think about global citizenship, and to help them position themselves in today’s global society. This component of the course is led by a Student Affairs professional who travels with the class.