Our schools are struggling due to the nation wide strike. Learning needs to continue at the schools, many of whom are running on skeleton crews. A group of volunteers have authored a set of open source textbooks and resources that can to support learners and educators in this time. The open copyright license allows the government to distribute it openly at the cost of printing it.
These Grade 10 – 12 Mathematics and Science books need a final review before it will be accepted and distributed by the Department of Education. We have 10 days to complete the review and would like to call on all mathematicians and scientists for help.
Which mathematician and scientists?
The subject matter is Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at high school level. We need volunteers who have post-graduate degrees in Maths, Physics, Chemistry or related fields and are willing to serve their country.
What do we have to do?
It is quite simple, we need to proof-read the books and correct any errors. The curriculum is covered, there are enough worked examples but there are a few errors which we need to find and fix. If time permits we can also simplify language and add more worked examples but this is secondary.
How we plan on doing it.
Volunteers can join us for one or many of the following slots at the Open Innovation Studio (27 Buitenkant Street in Cape Town) where we will be working through the books. Alternatively volunteers can receive material and provide feedback by e-mail. Volunteers will read a section, correct it and submit it for capturing. We want every section read by two independent people to reduce the possibility of errors slipping through.
We will provide copies of the material to be edited, food (lunch or dinner), drinks and a superb atmosphere.
We have 1800 pages to read and we estimate that we need at least 6 people for each of Maths, Chemistry and Physics to complete the process. A final editor will be used for each of the books as a third and final check.
Update – We were doing a lot manually which required people be in Cape Town if they wanted to help out but we’ve since uploaded the books to a.nnotate.com where anyone in the world can browse and annotate errors etc. so you can help from anywhere you have an internet connection.
We’d still like to coordinate efforts to make sure we cover all chapters well. Volunteer editors should email Bridget Nash [ bridget AT siyavula DOT org DOT za ] to find out where we’re still a bit thin.
Here are the links to take a look – but please coordinate with Bridget if you’re going to contribute:
Physical Science Grade 12 on Annotate.com
Physical Science Grade 11 on Annotate.com
Physical Science Grade 10 on Annotate.com
Mathematics Grade 12 on Annotate.com
Time slots
| Slots | 09:00 – 12:30 | 13:30 – 17:00 | 17:00 – 20:30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 25th August | OIS | OIS | |
| Thursday 26th August | OIS | OIS | |
| Friday 27th August | OIS | OIS | - |
| Saturday 28th August | OIS | OIS | - |
| Monday 30th August | OIS | OIS | OIS |
| Tuesday 31st August | OIS | OIS | OIS |
| Wednesday 1st September | OIS | OIS | - |
Contact us
Mark Horner: mark.horner@shuttleworthfoundation.org / 083 564 6272
or
Neels van der Westhuizen: neels@siyavula.org.za / 082 334 3259
More Details:
www.fhsst.org
www.siyavula.org.za
www.fullmarks.org.za
www.markhorner.net
qa.openpress.co.za
www.shuttleworthfoundation.org
The Free High School Science Texts (FHSST)
In 2002 we started a volunteer project to write right free high school science textbooks (www.fhsst.org). This took 5 years and we which took 5 years. We finished the first versions of the books in 2007 and haven’t touched them much since then. The books are released under an open copyright licence which allows for the legal adaptation, enhancement and distribution of the books.
We were planning on beginning to work through the books correcting errata and developing full model solutions so that we could release a new version in January. Model solutions would be put on another project we have developed FullMarks (www.fullmarks.org.za) which is to be launched this coming Friday 27th August.
The Siyavula Workbooks
We bought out a small curriculum development company that had developed a set of workbooks with teachers’ guides, lesson plans and work schedules covering all of Grades R-9 in both English and Afrikaans. We now own the copyright to the material which is released under an open copyright licence which makes it legal for people to copy, adapt, distribute and enhance the books.
- Website:
- Free High School Science Texts
- Started:
- October 2002
- Role:
- Co-founder
FHSST (Free High School Science Texts) is a project that aims to provide free science and mathematics textbooks for Grades 10 to 12 science learners in South Africa.
I co-founded this project with Sam Halliday. Our intitial objective was to work with other graduate students at the University of Cape Town to collaboratively author the textbooks. Ultimately, the pool of volunteers was much larger and the first version of the books are available from the project website.
In the interests of openness we've written a how-to with all our learnings for you to download. It complements the great case study of FHSST completed by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
When re-using this content please provide a clear and prominent link to this blog.
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