Welcome to Week 1:
A World of Difference

Welcome to week number 1 of the HPW online course - "A World of Difference". In this first week, we think about why there is an Earth in the first place, and how it came to have the correct materials for life. In a talk entitled "In the beginning", DC tells us a little more about the current theories on where we came from. Makatu then takes us through a comparative study of Earth and its nearby neighbours. At first, it looks like Earth is habitable because it sits happily at the right distance from the sun; our closest neighbour Venus is far too hot and Mars (further out), is too cold. However, using some high school physics and a simple model, we can soon discover this is not the case. As Makatu is very quick to point out, size matters, but as you will find out soon, it's more complicated still. But that, iPlaneteers, is getting ahead of ourselves.

1. This week's Lectures

Core Science 1: In the beginning with Carl Palmer

Carl Palmer holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of York, UK. He is currently the ACCESS Programme Manager. Dr Carl is a HPW fixture; he was part of the team that dreamed up and implemented the first ever HPW in 2007 - and has been involved ever since! DC, as the Planeteers call him, completed his postdoc at UCT (2008-2010), has peer reviewed publications in both science and education journals, and authored several chapters in the SAGE Encyclopaedia of Global Warming and Climate Change. You'll see plenty of him as part of HPW.

NB. Carl is the one on the right, the one on the left is a monkey. They do look very similar; we know!

Core Science 2: Not too Hot with Makathu Mashanyu

Makatu Casius Mashanyu is a PhD candidate in Engineering and holds a master’s degree in chemical and Minerals Engineering from North-West University. He is currently based at North-West University, where he serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Geology and Soil Sciences.

Makatu is a multi-academic award winner and recipient of the Dumisani Ndaba Award. Since joining the ACCESS Habitable Planet Workshop (HPW) in 2020, he has actively contributed to various programme initiatives aimed at inspiring and developing the next generation of young scientists.

Through his involvement in the HPW Schools Programme in the North-West Province, Makatu has played an important role in promoting science education, mentorship, and career awareness among young learners. In recognition of his contribution to inspiring the next generation of scientists, he was recently named among the Top 100 South African Shining Stars.

2. This week's reading

Today's reading introduces one of South Africa's most famous climate scientists, and the founding director of the ACCESS programme - Prof. George Philander. The article has some in depth stories about ocean and climate science (much of which is still to come in the course), but although this may be of interest to some of you, that is not the reason for including this reading right at the start of our journey.

As well as detailing the science, Prof Philander, writes about how important world events such as Apartheid, the Cold War and the 1994 Rugby world cup (!) impacted his life and South African science as a whole. The story culminates in the development of the Habitable Planet Programme back in 2007 (he says 2008, but we assure you it's 2007). So the end of this story, is the beginning of the HPW story, and ultimately a key reason why we are here today.

If you don't manage to finish it all, please just skip to the final paragraph on page 10 and go from there, making sure you look at the picture from 2007 - so you can see the footsteps you are following in.

Read now: Stamps to Parabolas - Prof George Philander

3. Special South Africa

South Africa is special when it comes to astronomy because of our rainfall, or lack thereof. It rains in the winter in Cape Town, in the summer in Durban, but for vast areas in between it doesn’t rain at all. This area is ideal for astronomy and is one of the reasons the Square Kilometre Array (SKA, pictured in the video below) is situated in South Africa.

Learn more at: http://www.ska.ac.za/

The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) are the body responsible for managing South Africa’s space programme (yes we have one!). They collate a huge number of satellite images of the country, dealing with issues from the growth of algal blooms to the growth of informal settlements. All of which is available for free on their website.

The new Meerkat National Park forms part of the footprint of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, which falls within the Karoo Astronomy Advantage Area. No cellphones or petrol vehicles are allowed in the park as one spark could damage the telescope and repairs could amount to R5 million! Data from the SKA is transmitted to the scientist studying it at 2TB/s - see if your campus network can match that!

4. This week's cartoon

All the known exoplanets ca. 2010 drawn to scale (there are now thousands more known - can you believe it?).

5. This week's test - submit on Tuesday

Each week's test/activities are worth credits towards your final score (100 in total are available over 10 weeks). Those with the most credits at the end of the course will be invited to join us for a week at UMP in Mbombela. This week’s credits are so easy to get, we are basically giving them away! We’d love to know more about you, because you are what the course is all about. So, all you have to do to get 5 credits this week, is simply introduce yourself to your class. To do that, you need to:

1. Make a short video of yourself answering the following questions:

i. What is your name?

ii. What does your name mean?

iii. What are you studying and why?

iv. What are your expectations for the HPW course?

v. What’s something interesting about you that not many people know?

You can make the video using a phone (maybe get a friend to help make it). You don't have to stick to just these questions, but you do need to answer these questions in your video.

2. Post on your HPW WhatsApp Group

In order to get your 5 credits, you will need to post your video on your HPW WhatsApp Group on Tuesday 8 th September (9am -5pm). Please include your full name and hashtag your exam number (from the EMP - e.g #065) in the captions so that the ACCESS Elves can find it. If we cannot find your video or link it to your exam number, we cannot award the marks. Please do try to watch a few of the others' videos, so you meet your classmates.

Important notes:

A lot of videos will be posted on Tuesday. We don't want you to use all your data! Please make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi and/or check in your WhatsApp settings to ensure that videos are only downloaded when connected to Wi-Fi.
Remember to use your exam number (from the EMP) and full name in the caption.
Only post videos on Tuesday the 9th. Videos posted outside this date will not receive marks.
Exam numbers should be 3 digits preceded by a hashtag, e.g. #023
No, you can't do it later if you forget. Do it on Tuesday between 9-5 or miss out on the marks.

IT support is offered

IT support is readily available for this task, to access the support service simply go to campus and look for a Computer Science student to ask. They are easy to spot due to their complete lack of dress sense, nerdy glasses and inability to talk to the opposite sex. Based on the latter observation, it’s best to pick one of the same sex as you to ask!

Google Sites

Report abuse

Welcome to Week 1: A World of Difference