What is FHSST?

FHSST (Free High School Science Texts) is a project that aims to provide free science and mathematics textbooks for Grades 10 to 12 science learners in South Africa.

Science education is about more than learning subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics... It is about learning to think and to solve problems. These are valuable skills that can be applied through all spheres of life. Teaching these skills to young people will equip them to make a positive contribution to the future of South Africa.

The project was initiated by young South African scientists, and now brings together scientists from around the world who are willing to contribute to the writing of the books.

Objectives

• To provide a complete high school science text that can be used for free anywhere else in the world as needed
• To provide a free resource, that can be used alone or in conjunction with other education initiatives in South Africa, to any/all learners and teachers
• To provide a detailed, accurate and interesting text that adheres to the South African school curriculum and the outcomes-based education system
• To provide a text that is easy to read and understand even for second-language English speakers
• Make a difference in South Africa through helping to educate our next generation

Principles

The driving force of this project is based on the ideas and principles of the free software community where each person does their part to build something great together.

Authors needed!

FHSST is a collaborative effort. We realise that no single person has enough time to spend days and weeks writing a free textbook. What we aim to do is to combine many small contributions into a quality text.

Volunteers are the life-blood of the project, and contribute by writing and editing content for the books.

Volunteers select available assignments from the workspace. Each assignment contains detailed guidelines of what needs to be written. These guidelines are drawn up by the book coordinators, and are based on the school curriculum. Communication between the book coordinators and volunteers (through forums and email) also helps to ensure that the content adheres to the guidelines.

How you can help

1. Register as a volunteer to help with the delevelopment of content (writing, editing, developing exercises and activities, creating figures)
2. Recruiting volunteers (More Information)
3. Fund-raising - For printing and distribution of completed books

Most recent stories posted on the site

Title	Author	Category	Comments	Last Updated	Image
FHSST in the Beeld newspaper	sarblyth	SA Education News	0	2008-03-06 01:51
UCT HACKATHON - 23 August 2007	sarblyth	Hackathon	0	2007-11-12 04:34
SA Publisher Merger - and possible effects on textbook pricing	sarblyth	SA Education News	0	2007-11-12 04:32