Engenius Kids was initially developed to promote a career in engineering to convince learners, who already meet the requirements, join the programme to gain experience on what a career in engineering entails. It was usually attended by learners from schools in town with their own transport and support to join the programme on weekends.

Since 2020 the focus of Engenius Kids shifted to recruit learners from the township, not only to introduce opportunities in engineering as a career choice, but also to influence more learners to include Mathematics and Physical Science in their subjects to follow in their senior secondary school years. This will open more doors for them in technical fields, not only to study engineering at university level, but also to be ready to follow a career as technicians and artisans.

Purpose

The Engenius Kids programme, in collaboration with Maths and Science teachers in township schools, try to change the image of the mentioned subjects by showing how the mentioned subjects are fitting and applied in our daily lives. We demonstrate how good scientific background can be of good use in society by just applying the basic principles if you really understand the concepts.

With fun projects in the field of engineering, we even take this to the next level to demonstrate how engineers are using these same basic scientific laws to develop useful products for the community to enjoy. We hope to light the fire of interest in the learners to be motivated to read more and to change attitude towards the two “difficult” modules everyone avoids having better results in matric.

Objectives

• Starting with Grade 9 learners in the hope that they will have more interest to take Mathematics and Natural Science in Grade 10 to Grade 12
• Introduce the different opportunities and career choices in the field of engineering. With that vision in mind, motivate them to put more energy and time in their studies.
• Identify learners with high potential and equip them with skills to act as facilitators in Grade 10 – 12. This will give them self-confidence and even more motivation to perform better.

Methodology

• Identify learners, from their school results of Grade 8, to be invited to be part of the Engenius Kids programme.
• Consent forms are sent to the parents to sign and to be aware of the activities and advantages for their children to be on the programme.
• Workshops are organized by senior engineering students. Parallel sessions are presented at the school promoting Chemical-, Electrical-, Industrial- and Mechanical Engineering.
• The content of the workshops does not only run fun projects, but it also links the scientific principles of the fun project to Maths and Science content in school.
• The Grade 9 school marks are then used to identify learners to join the Engenius Kids Club, where the selected learners will be further developed as facilitators.
• The Engenius Kids Club members will go through a battery Psychology tests to determine their field of interest and potential.
• Club members will have exposure to industry and research at the university with organized visits and other stimulating activities.
• Club members will also assist presenting the workshops to the Grade 9 learners. This will contribute a lot with the motivation of the young ones if a local school member act as a role model.
• Club members will be selected yearly on merit and senior club members will have more advantages and more support with their studies, hoping to “grow our own timber” from the local township to be prepared on the level to cope with studies.