Geography learners at Greenside High School have had a busy term.
The Grade 10s spent a day exploring Maropeng and the Sterkfontein Caves. The day began with a walk through an exhibition called The Long March to Freedom with more than 100 life-sized bronze statues of people including Mahatma Gandhi, Oliver Tambo, Helen Suzman and Nelson Mandela. From there, learners were given a guided tour of the Maropeng exhibition focusing on the development of the earth over millions of years followed by the development of humans over time.
Head of geography at Greenside High Paula Tedder said, “The highlight of the tour was going in the underground boat which highlighted the four main elements of our planet: earth, wind, water and fire.”
Tedder added that after completing the tour, learners made their way to the caves where they were given hard hats and sent deep into the caves to an underground lake and then had to crawl through tiny tunnels from cave to cave.
“The most important discovery was Little Foot – an almost complete skeleton dating back three million years.”
Greenside Grade 11s took a day trip to the Cullinan Mine where some learners donned overalls, gumboots and hard hats for their journey 700m underground. They had to walk more than 3km in the tunnels where they experienced the goings-on of a working mine. A blue diamond was recently unearthed in the mine which was sold to a collector for about R720 million.
Tedder said after the tour, the Grade 11s were given the chance to explore the historical town of Cullinan and returned home exhausted but with new experiences and knowledge.
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