Horner Transcript 2

From OER Commons

Interview with FHSST Founder Mark Horner

Movie 2

What inspired you to start a grassroots project (FHSST)?

The project originally started in October 2002. The need for a science textbook at that time was demonstrated to me when I was at a science festival earlier that year and I had been doing simple demonstrations of Chladni plates and interference, and some learners from a rural school that had gone out and clamped together their financial resources Areto buy a notebook and a pen and they'd come to me and asked me if I'd write down everything I'd explained because they didn't have a textbook and they said that their teacher didn't actually, wasn't actually able to explain all of the material to them. And so I said, yeah, not a problem, I'll do that, and I went and sat on my own for a while and I started writing. I just realized that a small isolated piece of material might be useful, but there's just so much information that they need to know, that a comprehensive book, with all of the material, is more relevant.

So, that being in April, it was clear that there was a need. But we didn't get around to really discussing starting this project until October.

What happened next? How did you know this was a bigger need?

So it was clear from the fact that these learners didn't have textbooks that there was a need. We did a little bit of research and discovered that a significant number of people didn't have textbooks. In addition, the entire curriculum was being rewritten at the time. It had already started propagating up from grade one. They call it the new curriculum statement. This next year (2008) will be the year when the new curriculum goes all the way to grade 12.

So all of the textbooks in the schools are being replaced, because the new curriculum and the old curriculum are significantly different.