Introducing China to two icons of biodiversity in SA – the rhino and the coelacanth

	The SAASTA delegation. Back row, from the left: Ryan Palmer (SAIAB), Shadrack Mkansi, Manager of SAASTA's Science Awareness Platform and Ulrich Oberprieler (NZG). Front row: Prof Antoinette Kotze (NZG) and Penny Haworth (SAIAB)

Following its successful participation in the 2012 Beijing Science Festival, SAASTA was again invited in 2013 to participate in this exciting event, which draws about 100 000 visitors annually.

Participation in the Festival forms part of a long-term science and technology exchange and cooperation agreement between South Africa and the Beijing Association for Science and Technology (BAST). The agreement is aimed at facilitating the exchange of information and experiences as well as discussion around a range of possible areas of cooperation.

With the theme for 2013 being "Biodiversity and Conservation", SAASTA invited two NRF National Facilities to represent the NRF Biodiversity Cluster at the Festival, the third of its kind hosted in Beijing. Shadrack Mkansi, Manager of SAASTA's Science Awareness Platform, accompanied Penny Haworth and Ryan Palmer of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) and Prof. Antoinette Kotze and Ulrich Oberprieler of the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (NZG) to China.

Shadrack represented the NRF/SAASTA at the Beijing Science Festival Forum and signed a memorandum of understanding for future interactions between the NRF/SAASTA and BAST.

Rhino and coelacanth exhibited

At the Festival, the NZG and SAIAB shared exhibition space, with the NZG's exhibitory focusing on the rhino and the SAIAB exhibitory on the coelacanth as icons of biodiversity and conservation in South Africa.

According to SAIAB's Penny Haworth, the exhibits were well received by co-exhibitors as well as the Chinese public, despite logistical challenges such as the placement of the SAIAB/NZG exhibition booth at the back of a tent. "On the Thursday and Friday we interacted with groups of school children, and over the weekend the general public, mainly parents and children, attended," she says.

Ryan Palmer noted that the people they managed to connect with showed a keen interest, right from pre-primary school youngsters to retired people. "Within the scope of the material we exhibited, there was enough range to cater for all levels," he says.

According to the NRF group, participation in the Festival also provided the opportunity to meet scientists and science communicators from other countries (China, Germany, Australia and USA primarily) and to learn about shared experiences and challenges with regard to science communication and outreach.

Visitors

	School groups and their teachers, as well as parents and their children all came to enjoy the interactive displays together. The children’s power of concentration and motor coordination is astounding.

"All school groups were accompanied by at least one teacher," says Penny. She noted that groups were rotated through the exhibitions. Some exhibits were highly interactive and could accommodate up to 30 people at a time. No groups visiting the smaller exhibits (such as the NRF one) exceeded 20 individuals. On the public open days, parents and children came and worked through the material together. According to Penny, life-long learning as a driver is very evident in Beijing.

"Children and adults used the opportunity to practice their English on us," she says, "and their attention to the detail of our exhibitory was astounding." Despite the language barrier, the NRF team was able to communicate most of the messages they aimed to get across. Many of the older learners used their iPhones to translate the exhibit material from English into Mandarin.

Recommendations

Based on her experience, Penny recommends that future delegations should structure exhibits to include information about South Africa in general, since it was clear that visitors to their exhibition knew very little about our country. "There is real potential to showcase the country and act as ambassadors," she comments.

She also noted that English competency among the Chinese was very limited, so the exhibitory needs to take this into account, and some exhibit material should be translated into Mandarin to encourage interaction and understanding.

"This can be as simple as laminated A4 prints of animals with an explanation in Mandarin on the flip side, or a sequence of simple PowerPoint slides translated into Mandarin, as the one created by Ryan after our first day. This gave visitors something familiar upon which to focus, which in turn sparked their interest and drew them to look for more information."

Using lots of visual material is essential to overcome the limitations of exhibiting in a foreign language. The Chinese visitors expect to interact with the exhibitors and the exhibits, so a strong recommendation is that exhibits are designed to be interactive and engaging.