Funny photo's

My students have to take at least five pitures while they are working on their project.  Each year there are some really funny poses and photo's...

Our mascot

At the end of the first year of lecturing the module, my friend, Anina Remchin, donated a handmade teddy bear to the module for the student that cared the most. Teddy bears and engineers are not associated and my Dean was very skeptical about this idea.

That year (2006) one of my students, Israel Sibisi, assisted learners from his old school in Soshanguve (a big township next to Pretoria) with Maths. The module had no budget and he used his own money to go to the schoo,l via taxi, Saturday after Saturday. During the July recess he continued with the Maths classes.

At the JCP-Swank (the year end function) he received the teddy bear. What a success. The teddy bear became part of the module. The following year a group of five students received one teddy. (I really did not think this through. How can a group of five students receive one teddybear?)

Anina then made a mascot for the module (Johannes Christoffel Pretorius) and now each students, that really did more than were expected, receive annually a little version of the teddy.

Our Mascot

Israel Sibi graduating as a mining engineer

Making me proud

One of the most memorable presentations of 2010 was a group that revamp a room into an after school centre in a township, Thembisa. They had to seek for funds as the module only provides each student with R300 (±€30). The photograph when the community members saw the final product the first time is still one of the best examples of the positive impact the students can have on the communities. (During this presentation I was crying – I was so proud of the student’s work – perhaps not so professional?)

Logo of the module

The first year of lecturering the module I requested the students to design a logo and then vote for the best option. The last 6 years this logo has been used. Every year 2000 t-shirts are printed. The students have to wear it while they are working in the communities. Thus a lot of T-shirts with logo’s - very good exposure for the university and the module. 

This entusiatic group of students gave the outdoor play area at a pre-school a face-lift

My name is Martina Jordaan and I am a lecturer at the University of Pretoria (South Africa).

I am responsible for the compulsory undergraduate course, Community-Based Project (JCP) at the Faculty Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology at the University of Pretoria. It entails that all undergraduate students have to work at least 40 hours in a community and thereafter reflect on their experiences. They also create a report in a form of a blog. Yearly more than 1500 students are registered for the module and there are usually about 400 to 500 projects. I have been responsible for this course the last six years. Even though I do blog on the Universities blog, I would like to share the experiences I had for the past six years.

I am alone responsible for the module and am the only one that is aware of all the wonderful things the students do in the communities. The feedback from the communities, the problems experienced the interesting and funny things that happen and the problems experienced when students work in the communities.