Global Microscience Project

About 10 years ago, John Bradley, a chemistry professor at the University of Witwatersrand, was searching for a way to bring the experience of chemistry labwork to students in South Africa's black schools. He developed portable kits comprising extremely small quantities of chemicals and miniature pieces of apparatus that teachers could use in the classroom.

Bradley’s effort was such a success that he was honored for his inventiveness and courage and he succeeded in attracting various international organizations to help him develop and disseminate his concept to underprivileged areas around the world. The Global Microscience Project involves partnerships with IOCD, UNESCO, IUPAC, and the International Foundation for Science Education (IFSE), which Bradley founded. He also established the RADMASTE Center at the University of Witwatersrand to develop the kits and the teacher and student manuals that accompany them.

Cameroonian students using RADMASTE^TM Microchemistry Kits.

The reduction of copper(II) oxide using the RADMASTE^TM Basic Microchemistry Kit.

Educators learning to use the RADMASTE^TM Microelectricity Kits.

Using the RADMASTE^TM Molecular Stencil to enhance understanding of the Particle Model.
(All photos courtesy of Beverly Bell)

The kits and materials are designed to be easily adaptable to the needs of different national curricula, and different language versions are under preparation. UNESCO has placed the chapters of the guide for teachers and the chapters of the student manual on its website, making them accessible to teachers and students throughout the world. As part of the Project, UNESCO provides the kits free of charge to schools in areas where it has field offices.

Under the auspices of UNESCO, IFSE, and IOCD, introductory workshops have been held in several locations to acquaint educational administrators and teachers with the Project: Zambia, DRCongo, Thailand, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Malaysi, and Indonesia.

UNESCO recently allocated funds under the UNESCO-IBS Programme for a pilot microchemistry project in Mozambique. This initiative will cover all three basic sciences (chemistry, physics, biology) and will be formally evaluated with a view to wider implementation in the country. The pilot project will end in March 2006. A joint proposal for a microchemistry pilot project is being prepared with colleagues at the University of Luanda (Angola).

Kits have started to be produced in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan in Russia, due to the efforts of Alexandre Pokrovsky, a former UNESCO scientist who is now an IFSE officer and a consultant to IOCD for the Global Microscience Project.

The RADMASTE Center continues to develop new equipment and kits to be used for chemistry, biology, and physics courses. They have also developed other types of educational aids to accompany the kits, including a molecular stencil and a molecular modeling kit. All the Center’s products are designed to be low-cost to ensure that they are accessible to as many as possible. Equipment and kits can be requested directly from the Center.

Distance science education is another area where these kits could prove revolutionary. Distance science programs typically either leave out all practical work or offer crash practical courses at a central location.

The Global Microscience Project is experimenting with the microchemistry kits as take-home kits to use following some basic classroom learning.

The Project is already making its way into national education infrastructures. In South Africa, secondary school textbooks are starting to appear with explicit reference to microscale experimentation. One of the UK matriculation examination boards now accepts the microscale experimentation, and examples of the Project's worksheets are shown on their website for use by teachers and students.

Beverly Bell, IFSE Executive Director (bellbct@radmaste.wits.ac.za)

UNESCO Global Microscience Project portal