CALTSTEAM Events

Open Day: MPhil in Virtual and Augmented Reality in STEM Education

Date | Friday, 2 August 2024
Time | 15:00-17:00
Venue | B Ring – 301 (The CALTSTEAM Research Centre)
RSVP | Monday, 29 July 2024 with Mr Makhubalo: pmakhubalo@uj.ac.za

This event is open to students who have completed their Honours degree in the following disciplines:

• Education
• Sciences: Biochemistry, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Sciences, Mathematical Sciences
• Engineering: Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering
• Arts: Architecture, Graphic Design, Industrial Design

For information on the MPhil in VAR, see MPhil VAR in STEM

Public Lecture presented by the esteemed Professor Timothy Teo from The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Education.

CALTSTEAM and the Department of Science and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education cordially invite you to attend a public lecture presented by the esteemed Professor Timothy Teo from The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Education. TOPIC: Building a Public Academic Profile: Unpacking the Elements. 

Date: 12 June 2024
Time: 10:00-12:00 (SAST)
Venue: Ubuntu Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, Madibeng Building, University of Johannesburg’s Auckland Park Campus

RSVP: link here

Hybrid link: link here

Invite Public Lecture Prof Timothy Teo

Webinar: “Opportunities and challenges for advanced learning technologies in STEM Education: An African Perspective”  (Prof Umesh Ramnarain)

Webinar presented by Prof Umesh Ramnarain (Director of CALTSTEAM) on ” Opportunities and challenges for advanced learning technologies in STEM Education: An African Perspective” 

CALTSTEAM and the ICEST (International Conference on Education, Science and Technology, 2024) along with Centre for Research and Development, and the Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology, Ikere-Ekiti, in Nigeria – cordially invites you to join the conversation led by Prof U. Ramnarain on the opportunities and challenges experienced when incorporating advanced learning technologies in STEM education within the African context.

Date: 24 June 2024

Time: 13:00 – 14:00

Venue: Google Meet

Writing for competitive Journals seminar: PhD & Master’s students

CALTSTEAM and the Department of Science and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education cordially invite all Masters and Doctoral students in the Faculty of Education to this online seminar presented  by the esteemed  Distinguished Visiting Professor: Timothy Teo from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

TOPIC: Writing for Competitive Journal.

Date: 14 June 2025
Time: 15:00- 16:30  (SAST)
Venue: Ms Teams

Invite_WritingSeminar_ProfTimothyTeo_ProfUmeshR_14Jun

Short Learning Programme in Virtual and Augmented Reality in Science Teaching. 

The CALTSTEAM research centre has offered and facilitated a Short-learning programme for science and other subject teachers where they were given opportunities to learn about Virtual and Augmented reality, experience these immersive and currently trending technologies in order for them to be able to effectively implement in their South African classrooms. This was a 6-months 2023 programme, where approximately 30 teachers across different schools from Gauteng province participated and graduated out of this programme.

Public Lecture by esteemed Professor Capps Daniel from the University of Georgia, United States. 

Daniel Capps is an associate professor in Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies Education at the University of Georgia in the United States. His research focuses on understanding how to design learning experiences that will support teachers and students in learning about what science is and the different ways it is practices. Daniel’s research has been regularly supported by the National Science Foundation. In his most recent project, Deep structure Modelling (https://modelingbigideas.org/), he and his colleagues address the pressing need to organise science teaching and learning around “big ideas” that run more effectively through disciplines.

This public lecture was hosted by the CALTSTEAM Research Centre of the Department of Science and Technology Education, on the 13th of March 2024 (15:00 – 16:30) at Ubuntu Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, Madibeng Building, University of Johannesburg.

Symposium on AI for STEM Education (SAARMSTE 2024)

The research centre hosted a symposium at the SAARMSTE conference in January 2024 on “AI for STEM Education”. The symposium explored the application, challenges, and advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

Open Day for UJ staff

An open day was hosted for UJ staff on 6 October 2022 on the use of VR and AR in higher education programmes. The open day provided insight and first-hand experience for staff on how VR and AR technologies could be integrated into their teaching. (see poster)

VARTEL International Conference
The International VARTEL (Virtual & Augmented Reality in Technology-Enhanced Learning) Conference took place from December 1–2, 2022. The conference will bring together top scholars and researchers from Europe, Southeast Asia, the United States, and Africa who share cutting-edge research. The organizers secured two world leaders in the fields of VR and AR, who presented keynote addresses. They were Professor Wouter van Joolingen from Utrecht University, Netherlands, and Professor Eleni Mangina from University College Dublin, Ireland. Professor Wouter’s keynote was on “Strengthening science education with augmented, virtual, and creative technology,” and Professor Mangina addressed the audience on “The new era of learning and training with XR technology affordances in education.”

Seminar on “How can Artificial Intelligence Support STEM Teaching and Learning?”

On March 15, 2023, Prof. Joseph Krajcik from Michigan State University presented a seminar on his work in using artificial intelligence (AI) as a partner to score open-ended explanation tasks and student-drawn models to provide immediate feedback to teachers and students and to suggest next steps that teachers and students can take to improve learning.

Workshop on “Virtual and augmented reality (VAR) for teacher education”

The Centre, in its commitment to community engagement, facilitated a workshop for teachers from UJMA on the use of VR and AR applications in teaching abstract science concepts.

Workshop on Video Annotation
Professor Kennedy Chan from the University of Hong did a workshop with BEd 4th year science methodology students on enhancing pre-service science teachers’ ability in “noticing” and using video annotation of micro-lessons.

Workshop on Learning Analytics for VR
The Centre hosted researchers from the Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences who conducted a workshop on learning analytics for a virtual reality classroom.

Seminar on “Exploring the use of virtual and augmented reality for inquiry-based science learning” at NMU
Prof Ramnarain was invited by NMU to coordinate a seminar on VR and AR for inquiry-based science education. The seminar took place on 12 July 2023. At the seminar, he presented examples of applications that could be used in supporting inquiry learning.

SLP virtual and augmented reality (VAR) in science teaching
CALTSTEAM hosted a short learning programme for science teachers. In the SLP, the teachers learnt about the affordances of VAR, how to use various applications in VAR, how to integrate VAR applications into their teaching practices; and how to critically select VAR applications for integration in science lessons. The SLP blended face-to-face workshops and online interactive sessions.

Free workshop on Augmented Reality using Unity 3D and Vuforia
The CALTSTEAM research centre, Faculty of Education in collaboration with Metaverse Research Unit has hosted a free training session aimed at using Augmented Reality as an educational tool. The workshop helped the attendees to develop skills on developing AR mobile applications.