Automotive Business Review February 2015 | Page 28

Corporate Conscience

| by Austin Gamble

Science on the Go
CSI (Corporate Social Investment) is an acronym that came into vogue in the 1990’s, having evolved from the
previous CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programmes that were developed in the 1980’s. Initially, CSR and
CSI programmes were generally welfare-related, but today companies are looking for a social return on their
investment, and are also looking ahead when they allocate funds to their CSI programmes.

O

ne such company is MAHLE
Behr South Africa (MBSA).
MBSA’s commercial director,
Alex Holmes, says “At MAHLE Behr
South Africa we are particularly focused
on the communities near to where we
operate, and the areas in which our
employees live. Our “Science2Go”
programme is an innovative way to
reach a larger number of students from
our local area with high-quality science
education. We believe that the portable
science lab will inspire, educate and
spark the interest of science leaders for
tomorrow.” Holmes adds that MBSA
sees CSI as both a Corporate Social
Investment and a
Community Social
Investment.

CASME have experienced facilitators
and laboratory assistants who will be
conducting the sessions at the thirty
local schools. The lessons have been
designed to align with the Curriculum and
Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS)
requirements for Physical and Natural
Sciences. The equipment will be taken
to the school in the MAHLE Science2Go
laboratory, utilised in the lessons and
then returned for replenishment and
maintenance.

➲ Alex Holmes, commercial director at
MAHLE Behr South Africa

Thirty schools in
the rural and under
resourced areas
of Claremont,
KwaDabeka and
Molweni with currently
little or no science
infrastructure are set
to benefit in 2015
from MAHLE Behr’s
South Africa(MBSA)
“Science2Go”mobile
science laboratory.
It is all about taking
science to areas that
are poorly resourced
and to help students
perform curriculumbased hands-on experiments.
This initiative came about because
MBSA’s research indicated that their
previous initiatives to improve maths
and science marks were bearing fruit
in maths but not science, and that
the reason was the lack of science
laboratories.

➲ Science2Go Rap Artists
Stimulation in science comes from
hands-on experiments, and to address
this problem MBSA is partnering with the
Centre for the Advancement of Science
and Mathematics Education (CASME), who
have created the colourful “Science2Go”
vehicle, which has been converted and
fitted to house the laboratory science
equipment.

| words in action

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Each school will be visited once per term
(Terms 1 to 3) for a full day of practical
activities. The programme will be structured
to enable the facilita ܜ