Abstract
The Bakwena Cave houses a variety of organisms that form an intricate and interdependent food web. This cave is utilised as a permanent roost by a colony of Natal clinging bats. The bat guano and allochthonous plant material that fall into the cave from outside, form the basis of the ecology inside the cave which may be considered a typical example of a detritus ecosystem. Decomposers such as bacteria and fungi are responsible for the decay of the guano and plant detritus which, in turn, are utilised by several organisms, including nematodes and mites, as food source. These animals form the next trophic level which is utilised by predatory arthropods as food source. The Bakwena Cave is one of the few dolomitic caves in South Africa that provide access to the water table. The groundwater houses several types of organisms, including bacteria, fungi and animals – primarily nematodes and crustaceans. The Bakwena Cave is also the type locality for freshwater amphipods in Southern Africa. This unique and sensitive ecosystem is primarily dependent on bat guano. The grassland surrounding the cave is utilised by the bats as foraging area and is currently threatened by urban development and the resulting habitat fragmentation and destruction. A cascade of extinctions of the cave-dwelling organisms will follow if the bats abandon the cave.
Highlights
Postal address: Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, Groenkloof Campus, Leyds Street, Groenkloof, Pretoria 0181, South Africa
Spatial orientation and cognitive load as factors influencing learning amongst blind learners in the Life Sciences
Little research is done in South Africa on factors influencing cognitive load during teaching and learning
Summary
As ons nou van die standpunt uitgaan dat leerprestasie verhoog wanneer tweeledige modaliteite tydens onderrig en leer gebruik word (Harskamp, Mayer & Suhre 2007:467; Wikipedia 2008), behoort blinde en visueelgestremde leerders te baat by narratiewe onderrig wat deur Braille teks of taktiele hantering van leermateriaal ondersteun word. Van Merriënboer en Sweller (2005:150) verwys na Mousavi, Low en Sweller (1995) en skryf: if multiple sources of information that are required for understanding are all presented in visual form (e.g., a written text and a diagram), they are more likely to overload the visual processor than if the written material is presented in spoken form, enabling some of the cognitive load to be shifted to the auditory processor [indien al die inligtingsbronne, wat vereis word om begrip te bevorder, in visuele vorm (byvoorbeeld geskrewe teks en diagramme) aangebied word, bestaan ’n groter moontlikheid dat die visuele dataprosesseringsmeganismes oorlaai sal word as wanneer die geskrewe materiaal as narratiewe aangebied word omdat ’n gedeelte van die kognitiewe lading na die ouditiewe dataprosesseringsmeganismes verskuif word.] In gevalle waar van leerders vereis word om aandag tussen veelvoudige inligtingsbronne te verdeel om kognitiewe integrasie te bevorder, die verbale materiaal eerder in ouditiewe as geskrewe vorm beskikbaar gestel kan word om beter benutting van kognitiewe dataprosesseringsmeganismes te bevorder
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