Habitable Planet Homepage
“Why is the planet Earth habitable?”
In an age where thousands of planets are known, this question is now more pertinent and intriguing than ever before. Each of our "Habitable Planet" training events invite students to examine all, or parts, of this question. In doing so we introduce students to the emerging interdisciplinary field of Earth Systems Science. As we do so, we come to the inescapable revelation that southern Africa turns out to be an exceptional region to be studying the Earth’s systems.
Find out more about our amazing Habitable Planet Programme with ACCESS and the Planeteers (the name given to our students) below:
1. "Habitable Planet" Undergradute Workshops
ACCESS host a series of ten day long undergraduate training workshops held two times every year, all around Southern Africa. These workshops, called Habitable Planet (HPW), use an innovative curriculum that aims to introduce final year undergraduate and honours students to the concept of Earth Systems Science from a unique Southern African perspective. The workshop also employs a unique mix of lectures, field trips, workshop sessions and interactive games to bring the science alive. You can find out what our alumni have to say about the programme in the short video (right / below) or click here to read feedback letters from past students. Our undergraduate workshops are held every year in the June/July holidays.
2. "Habitable Planet" Open Online Course
The ACCESS Habitable Planet Online course takes the learning from the HPW undergraduate workshops and makes it available online for anyone interested to participate in. The online course is a 10-week programme that runs from September - November each year. The top students from the online course join us for a science workshop in December.
3. The Habitable Planet schools programme
We also run a variety of programmes for school children. Each year we send specially trained Habitable Planet alumni back to schools to run a two part engagement around the Habitable Planet Curriculum. The first part involves starting a science club, where the alumni interact with a selected group of school learners regularly. This interaction ends with the mini- Habitable Planet workshop - a holiday programme where the science gets brought to life with trips, lectures, movies and more. Programmes have been held in Cape Town, East London, Alice, Makhanda, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg, Polokwane and Thohoyandou.... and more locations are added each year!
4. The FAST programme
The Far Apart - Science Together (FAST) programme is the newest addition to the Habitable Planet Family. Launched in the winter of 2020 is response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FAST programme is a remote learning experience unlike any other. Students from all over South Africa (and all over the world) come together on Zoom to engage with the HPW curriculum in a way that best replicates the experience of a physical workshop (without leaving your home). FAST participants are engaged in a range of science exercises (including lectures and creative arts), gain transferable skills and even network at a formal Gala dinner event. Find out more:
FAST Tracks - the guidebook to the 2020 programme
FAST Participant Testimonials - what did the participants say?
5. Habitable Planet leadership training
One thing that make all our programme's unique is that they are all run predominantly by students themselves. Each year in March we offer training for Alumni from the programme to become student leaders at Habitable Planet. We offer three streams (i) Student Lecturer and (ii) Mini-Habitable Planet schools engagement leader and (iii) Local organising committee training (LOC) training.
6. The Dumisani Ndaba Awards (DNA)
Named after Dumisani, a Planeteer from the 8th HPW, the DNA is our programme’s excellence award. The award was established posthumously in his honour, and has been presented annually since 2017 to someone who, "like Dumisani himself, has made an exceptional contribution to the Habitable Planet Programme over a prolonged period of time". Dumisani really loved the HPW programme, and I am sure he would be proud to know that his namesake award is still going strong and continues to recognize outstanding individuals who have dedicated themselves to the cause. Find out more, including about the past winners, at the DNA homepage.
7. Links and Further Info
Please see the following sources for more info:
Reflecting on ten years of the Habitable Planet - Article with more details on the programme.
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Want to ask something not mentioned here? Contact Dr Carl Palmer on cpalmer@access.ac.za.