Magazine 2017

1. 2. 3. DOODLE CLUB Doodle Club is a relaxed atmosphere where learners learn new artistic skills and exercise existing skills to keep on growing in an innovative direction. This is a drawing club, where learners engage in different ways to draw traditionally and digitally. The focus is to enhance fine motor skills and practise the art of drawing. During the year, learners have explored different activities to develop their creativity. They have made drawings, paintings and experimented with different drawing techniques. Ms Carike Cass MAKERSPACE MakerSpaces, sometimes also referred to as hackerspaces, ‘hack- spaces’, and fablabs - are creative, DIY spaces where learners can gather to create,invent, and learn. Learners get the opportunity to explore the use of 3D printing, software, electronics, craft and hardware supplies and tools. This is an exciting place and space for learners to visualise, idealise and be creative. During MakerSpace Club this year, a small group of talented and creative learners designed wonderful ideas, utilizing them on iPad, and 3D printed their own prototypes. Learners also explored different apps that could be used for 3D printing. They have excelled in these activities and we are looking forward to developing this club further in the years to come. Ms Carike Cass ANIMATION Animation has flourished in 2017. We have both Junior and Senior teams who are each working on a short film. The chosen format is stop motion as it is very easy to learn and it provides the perfect platform to learn essential animation techniques. Over the year the learners have built up a significant quantity of footage. The learners are aware that this form of animation takes time and adequate preparation, but they are motivated by the intended and very exciting outcome. Mr Chaise Frederick PRESIDENT’S AWARD The President’s Award Programme is in full swing at the College with two of our learners, Tara O’Sullivan and Makenna Coleman, having completed the Bronze Level Programme and having moved onto the Silver Level Programme. A host of other learners are enrolled into the Bronze Level Programme at present as well. After our first successful Adventurous Journey took us into the Cedarberg last year, our second Adventurous Journey took place along a coastal route during September this year. Mr Don Duffield YOUNG PHYSICISTS’ CLUB A dedicated group of aspiring young physicists delve into the depths of the workings of the universe during Thursday utility sessions in Lab A19. The purpose of this club is to expose learners to the wonders of physics beyond the curriculum. Challenging existing ways of seeing the world is the “name of the game” for the members of this club. Running workshops on Monte Carloodelling and Cosmology also served to make our members more aware of the beauty and power of physics and what they can expect beyond school-level physics. Mr Don Duffield FPV DRONEZ Parklands College prides itself on having a wide variety of clubs and societies available and we currently have more than forty different weekly activities that learners can participate in. The newest, and arguably the most exciting of these, is ‘FPV Dronez’! This is where learners who have taken to the skies with this latest worldwide craze, are invited to discuss the latest issues in the news (during Utility) and refine their flying skills on Thursday afternoons. Although this is a new initiative it has really ‘taken off’ in a big way and we have already hosted an international competition aptly named Drone Wars in June this year. The skies are no longer the limit! Mr Anthony Peters APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT Programming (a.k.a. “coding”) has arguably become one of the most sought after skillsets of today. The Application Development Club introduces learners to the world of programming and the building of applications (“apps”) for mobile devices. The main development platform that the club focuses on is the iOS environment and the building of apps entails working in teams, building working programmes and developing communication and problem- solving skills. This year learners were introduced to the Swift programming environment using Xcode. The club strives to act as a conduit for the development of apps that are relevant and make a difference in society, so that “real-world” experience is accumulated. In 2017, the Flashmob App made its debut - a simple app that reads videos from YouTube and allows people from within the Flashmob Club to share content so as to help streamline the running of the club. Mr Marcel Erasmus 108 Parklands College, Twentieth Edition, 2017