Book your Maropeng school trip for 2017

In a world where tolerance seems increasingly absent, a trip to Maropeng could be a perfect opener for the school year. Here, just a 90-minute trip from the centres of Johannesburg and Pretoria, children will learn that there is only one race – the human race.

We’re the official visitor centre for the Cradle of Humankind, one of South Africa’s eight World Heritage Sites and widely recognised as the place where all humankind originated.

Conscious of the important role we can play in educating South Africa’s children, we have put together curriculum-based teachers' guides to make it easier for any teacher (or parent) to help their pupils interpret what they see and experience at Maropeng.

We also have accommodation for up to 120 learners. Hominin House has separate rooms for teachers, so that you and your classes can spend a few days exploring the centre and caves, and even the surrounding area. There's lots of outdoor space for learners to relax after a day exploring evolution, playing volleyball, basketball and table tennis, or just enjoying natural beauty. The journey that our species has taken over millennia to become Homo sapiens (modern humans) is a complex one, and exploring it can be linked to school subjects: Geography, History, Life Orientation, Life Sciences and Physical Science.

The exhibitions at Maropeng, which include interactive games and an underground boat ride, focus on life on Earth and our common evolutionary pathway. There is also a focus on sustainability for the planet for our future.

A visit to Maropeng could just include the visitor centre, but it’s well worth including a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves, where many of the exciting clues as to how we evolved have been found. This is where the famous “Mrs Ples” skull was found in the 1940s, and an almost complete hominin skeleton known as “Little Foot”. Mrs Ples is more than 2-million years old, Little Foot 3.67-million years old.

The Maropeng Visitor Centre is open to the public from 9am to 5pm daily, with the last boat ride at 4pm, and there is a special school group price of R90 per pupil for Maropeng alone. Add the Sterkfontein caves and it’s R120 per pupil. The combination ticket is only available until 1pm because of the time it takes to visit both.

For more information, please contact Dorcas Tshabalala at:
Tel: +27 (0)14 577 9000
Email: dorcust@maropeng.co.za