Cape Town - When young people look up into the night sky, they must also think about space exploration, said Bjarke Gotfredsen, chief executive of XinaBox.

Based on this, Soneike High School in Kuils River has started a space learning programme to encourage space exploration.

Learners at the school have worked with hand-held micro sensors, which they used to measure temperature.

The company XinaBox also taught them how to launch a sensor weather balloon 13km into the atmosphere.

The school’s principal, Ronel Baker, said bursaries for science, technology, engineering and maths would also be given to learners by the Avery Dennison company next year.

“Our social partners, Avery Dennison and XinaBox, have made this programme possible.

“The learners like the space learning programme very much.

“They also visited Sutherland, where the South African Large Telescope is located and the South African National Space Agency.

“It has been great, because it has made learning real.

“The programme had a positive impact on the learners and there has also been an improvement in their other subjects.

“We want to turn the programme into a hub of space studies,” Baker said.

The school’s deputy principal and also the co-ordinator of the space programme, Leon Hanslo, said many learners who were studying maths and science were part of it.

“The programme will help them if they decide to study anything in the space arena, engineering or technology,” he said.

Gotfredsen said: “We want high school kids to build satellites.

“Kids from Africa have the opportunity to go to space,” he said.

One of the learners at Soneike High school, Tara Sadat, said they were very excited about the space programme.

“It is pretty cool recording things in space,” she said.