VIU’s Extreme Science Show to raise funds for African schools

You won’t want to try this at home – faculty from Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) science departments are hosting an action packed extreme science show on Tuesday, May 26. The all-ages show features a variety of stunts and demonstrations including a trick involving a bed of nails, a concrete block and a sledgehammer. Other highlights include chemistry explosions and a high powered Tesla coil (you may want to Google that).

The show is the brainchild of VIU physics professor Ray Penner and a fundraiser for his charity, LED Africa. The nonprofit organization aims to provide LED lighting in secondary schools in rural Malawi where students attend evening study sessions lit by paraffin lamps. Not only does the smoke from paraffin cause health concerns, it’s expensive and has to be imported.

“It’s not always available,” said Penner. “Students sometimes go weeks or months without light.”

Penner developed a connection with Malawi when he taught there 20 years ago. “I looked at a renewable energy project then that provided lighting to a school. Although technically it worked, it was too expensive to be implemented. A few years ago, I saw a show on TV dealing with LED lights that could be viable, so I set up a little research project and looked at designing a LED lighting system.”

Last year, Penner and his colleagues from the University of Malawi set up a test system in two classrooms using energy efficient lights powered by a solar panel on the roof. The total power required for a 50 student classroom is about 40 watts, which keeps expenses low.

“The key for me was that the system can be built by Malawians and maintained there,” said Penner. “The annual cost of running this lighting is less than what the schools currently pay for Paraffin and therefore the schools can cover all the future maintenance costs. It’s a long-term system.”

This summer he will travel to Malawi to install the lighting system in six classrooms, working with technicians from the University of Malawi to build the desk lamps.

Five local engineering firms – Herold Engineering, Inuktun Services, J.E. Anderson and Associates, Levelton Consultants and Lewkowich Geotechnical Engineering – have each sponsored a classroom system. 

Eventually Penner hopes to get enough funds so that he can get the lights into every rural secondary school in Malawi, which he figures would cost about $300,000.

“It sounds like a lot of money,” he said. “But I recently saw on TV that Victoria spends $2 million a year on graffiti removal – I could light all of the rural secondary schools in southern Africa with that.”

While he’s waiting for donors and foundations to take notice, Penner is raising money with science. He plans to lay on the bed of nails himself, all in the name of charity.  

The show features instructors from the physics, chemistry and math departments, as well as students. Three shows for local schools have already sold out. There is one show open to the public Tuesday, May 26, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm in the Malaspina Theatre at VIU.

Intrigued? Tickets are $10 and are available at Falconer Books in Port Place Mall. All funds raised will go directly to LED Africa. For more information on the Malawi project check out www.LEDafrica.org.