Introducing Marina Myburgh

Marina Myburgh has been teaching Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology and STEAM for 37 years. She completed a BSc with Mathematics and Computer Science and Masters Degree in the Didactics of Mathematics at UJ when it was still called RAU.

She loves travelling, gardening, cooking and tinkering with new technology. Her first grand child is due in a week or two.

She stays young by having fun! She enjoys learning and discovering something new every day and passionately tries to inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning in her students every day. She is currently employed at Crawford College Sandton teaching IT and STEAM. She has piloted a learning program for the grade 9s to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.

She has empathy with many young Africans who find themselves unemployed or, more frequently, underemployed in informal jobs with low productivity and pay and wantsto help students to acquire ICT skills to succeed in this new information-based and highly technological society.

Her entry for the Super Teacher Competition is a STEAM learning programme that is fun and engaging, to spark a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and encourage students to choose STEAM subjects for Grade 10, 11 and 12 and consider further studies and careers in these fields.

She used the Microsoft 365 platform to create an online learning platform and piloted it at Crawford College Sandton in 2017. The students are enjoying the “hands -on” approach very much. She says it is very rewarding to see students helping each other and explaining to each other when they solve problems. 

Students became familiar with saving all work on OneDrive. The students learned to collaborate online by working in the same online documents. They used Microsoft Quizzes for online assessments and the students learned how to code in MakeCode for micro:bit and to work with Arduino.  They also used 3D printers and a laser cutter and built self propelled cars from recycled material.

The project has been very successful so far and is having a very positive impact.  They invited the grade 7s for a fun day and showed them how to design for 3D printing in Sketchup. Other Crawford Schools and other schools in the Advtech group might implement the same programme in future.

Connect with Marina on:
Twitter: @marinamyburgh
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marinaemyburgh
Google+: plus.google.com/+MMyburgh
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/marina-myburgh-0a9a7972
Class site: https://sites.google.com/a/crawfordcloud.co.za/it-with-marina-myburgh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marina_myburgh/
Pinterest: https://za.pinterest.com/mm5951/

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