In response to an overwhelming need expressed by South African Life Sciences educators, Siyavula – a Shuttleworth Foundation seeded project - is collaborating with interested educators and post-grad university students to create a free and open Grade 10 Life Sciences textbook, for use in 2012 and beyond. This will be made possible by educators combining their existing teaching notes, examples and exercises, to create a CAPS aligned textbook!

If you would like to participate in the Life Sciences textbook collaboration weekend, please register your attendence above. 

The times will be as follows:

• Friday 14 October, starting at 14h00, going on into the evening, until 20h00 (includes afternoon tea, supper and drinks)

• Saturday 15 October, 09h00 – 20h00 (includes breakfast, lunch, supper and drinks)

• Sunday 16 October, 09h00 - 12h00 (includes breakfast)

***Please note that when you commit to this you are committing yourself to all the sessions over the weekend

Place: The Open Innovation Studio, 27 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town (see map on right). We are the red doors opposite the police station, next door to the District 6 Museum (corner of Buitenkant and Albertus Streets). Should you not be able to find parking in the street, you can try around the corner in the Charly's Bakery parking lot.

Cost: Free!

For further information, please visit our Q and A page! You can also view our process diagram which shows how we envision the process taking place. 

What we need from you:

• Your own teaching notes that you have created and are prepared to make available online for others to use, share and adapt, under a Creative Commons licence, applicable to Grade 10.

• Your own laptop, with your notes in MS Word or the equivalent editable format (no PDF's please!). If you do not have your own laptop we may be able to accommodate you.

What we will provide:

• A style guide for the authoring process;

• A curriculum framework from which to work;

• Rich-media resources for inclusion in the material, such as Mindset videos and simulations, citizen cyberscience projects and fun educational websites for learners to visit;

• Full access to the final textbook;

• Full catering (tea, coffee, snacks, lunch, supper, drinks); and

• Tech support.

What you can rely on from us:

• To ensure you are appropriately acknowledged in the Life Sciences textbook;

• To make the textbook available online for all Life Sciences educators to access and use;

• To make the product available via mobile front-end (m.siyavula.cnx.org);

• To ensure you will have a PDF document to take away with you at the end of the weekend, as well as a printed first draft;

• To provide an annotation platform for the textbook, to ensure its constant evolution and adaptation to everyone's needs.

Additional information

The need for this collaboration arises as the Life Sciences curriculum is revised for 2012. In order to make the process of adaptation easier for everyone, Siyavula felt it was time to address the need for a comprehensive Life Sciences textbook that covers the new curriculum, starting with Grade 10. This textbook will be freely available for all educators and learners across the country to use, and will be accessible online, in PDF for printing, and EPUB format, and via mobile phone. Siyavula will ensure that all persons involved will be appropriately acknowledged in the Life Sciences textbook, as well as provide an online annotation platform where the text can be commented on, to ensure its constant evolution and adaptation to everyone's needs.

What makes this textbook different is that it will be created in collaboration with dedicated Life Sciences educators and post-graduate university students, facilitated by Siyavula over the course of a long weekend. This will be made possible through educators contributing their own teaching resources, which they are happy to share under a Creative Commons open copyright licence. Mindset Learn, the local educational broadcaster, is also participating by openly contributing revision material and a selection of their video lessons. These videos, along with simulations, presentations and assessment items will be linked into the book to make it easier for learners and educators to find additional support.

But this is not the first time that Siyavula has embarked on such a project. Siyavula's 'Physical Sciences for Grades 10, 11 and 12' and 'Mathematics for Grades 10, 11 and 12' series of textbooks were collaboratively authored by a community of volunteer educators, academics and professionals. To view our textbooks please follow this link: http://www.siyavula.com/books. These books are also available via your mobile phone, which can be read by pointing your phone's browser at: m.siyavula.cnx.org. Like the proposed Life Sciences textbook, these textbooks are also available under an open copyright licence, which allows others to legally distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work, with learners and educators actively encouraged to download, copy, share, adapt and edit (even translate!) the content legally and freely.

Siyavula believes in sharing, community, collaboration and openness, and through the use of technology we strive to produce the best quality free educational resources out there. Siyavula is currently in serious talks with the Department of Basic Education to get our Grade 10 Maths and Physical Science textbooks on the desk of every learner in South Africa, as a supplementary resource in 2012. Imagine the impact if the same could be done for a Life Sciences textbook!

Contact us:

For any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

• Email bridget@siyavula.com

• Telephone 021 469 4771