The Earth Observation division of the South African National Space Agency (Sansa) recently launched its Fundisa 2013 educational resources, in Pretoria. These are directed at the country’s universities and students and now, for the first time, at high school pupils as well. “Fundisa means to inculcate, to bring across, knowledge,” explained Sansa executive director: corporate services Zweli Ndziba. The Fundisa resources now comprise the Fundisa disk, aimed at universities; the Fundisa portal, aimed at individual students; and the new Fundisa disk school edition. “They are designed to inspire the youth.”

The Fundisa programme was launched in 2009 by a Sansa precursor agency, the Satellite Applications Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. It provides earth observation data, on disks, to universities, to allow them to use it for research and training. In 2012, about 18 Fundisa disks were distributed to South African universities. In addition, the disks now also contain earth observation knowledge as well as the data.

The original disk programme has since been supplemented by the development of the Fundisa portal, which is an online earth observation resource that allows students direct access to Sansa and its earth observation specialists. “It also increases outreach and can accommodate large data sets,” noted Sansa remote sensing specialist Hugo de Lemos.

The new Fundisa disk school edition is a DVD packaged with satellite imagery, the Sansa edition of the Quantum geographic information system (a popular open source geographic information system package), tutorials and reading material. It is aimed at Grades 10 to 12 (the highest three grades in South African high schools). “It is designed to excite interest in earth observation,” stated De Lemos. “It’s being piloted in a few schools.” The schools selected are quite close to Sansa, to make it easy for the agency to provide support to them. If the pilot programme is successful, it will be extended to other schools.

The Fundisa programme is aimed at increasing the country’s intellectual capital. The content of the Fundisa disk school edition includes material related to the areas of interest of the schools and their communities. The material is, as far as possible, aligned with the geography curriculum. The hope is that some of the pupils exposed to the Fundisa programme will go on to focus on space or remote sensing at tertiary institutions.

“What we are going to be doing at Sansa, the question we’re addressing to schools, is: think about space science and technology,” said Department of Science and Technology chief director: Space Science Humbulani Mudau in his keynote address at the Fundisa launch. “Through space science and technology, we can develop the country and we can contribute to the African renewal. We need to be able to position ourselves to develop a knowledge-based economy. Through space science and technology we would be able to contribute quite significantly. We want to be one of the leading nations in the innovative use of space science and technology.”

The guest speaker at the 2013 Fundisa resources launch was Dr Woodrow Whitlow, recently retired from the post of associate administrator for mission support in the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). He affirmed that South Africa was continuing to build on its own history in space science and technology. He noted that countries that were active in space have an advantage over those which are not. Whitlow endorsed Sansa’s Fundisa programme, pointing out that Nasa has long had a major public outreach and educational programme. This now targets everybody from five years of age up to and including postdoctoral students.