iSTART.Education
In the beginning...
Kenya: STEM Frontier 2012
A 21st Century Model of Success
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In May of 2012, in conjunction with the LEGO Foundation, STEM4Kenya Education piloted a unique project that would identify Kenyan schools as leaders in the move toward innovative educational models for teaching STEM in Africa. Utilizing LEGO Education materials, including LEGO MINDSTORM Robots and innovative STEM materials from USA based PITSCO, founders Matthew and Kathy Collier teamed up with Kenyan teachers and administrators over several years to establish STEM and robotics in Kenyan schools. Among the first schools involved in the early pilot trainings were Alliance Boys High School, Njoro Boys High School, Precious Blood Girls High School, Alliance Girls High School, Larmudiac Provincial High School, Mount Kenya Academy, the Green Garden Schools, and Mustard Seed Schools. Here is a video link of the impact of that launching in 2012 of Kenya: STEM Frontier: http://vimeo.com/45280771
Kenya: STEM Frontier was designed to address the current and projected needs for establishing innovative ICT and STEM content area instruction within schools in Kenya and East Africa. One avenue to achieving this end, schools were trained how to integrate Project-Based Education through LEGO Education materials. For long term sustainability, Kenya: STEM Frontier, coordinated a system whereby cohorts of Kenyan district education professionals were recruited into an ICT/STEM program that demonstrated active use of project based or constructionism methods in the classroom using these LEGO materials. The school partners, both rural area schools and suburban schools, were impacted by significant numbers of culturally diverse students, both male and female.
Phase 1 participation included teachers and students from 8 schools and a “How to Teach Project Based Learning” workshop for students at Thogoto Teachers College. Direct, initial contacts were also established for future implementation of programs.
Phase 2 - 2014-16 involved addition of LEGO MINDSTORM robots.
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Pictured above, left:Introduction to Project Based Learning at Njoro Boys High
School; on right, Teacher training at Thogoto College
Dynamics embedded within the STEM for Kenya training model for students and teachers provided tools for developing upper level, critical thinking skills, paramount to the success of a young person’s ability to contribute to the needs of their country and humanity in the 21st century. LEGO materials proved to be dynamic tools for allowing these children to accomplish those goals.
Our plan was built on 2 goals:
Goal 1: Equip Kenyan faculty with skills for creating viable and meaningful Science, Engineering, Technology and Math (STEM) educational experiences for students in their classrooms. Teachers learn how to leverage the use of Hands On materials and other STEM resources to build exceptional STEM classrooms.
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Goal 2: Provide professional, capacity building training for teachers in the development of PBL (Project or Problem Based Learning) STEM programs for their students. Teachers are trained in using Hands On materials to create effective, innovative classrooms and/or extension programs in STEM.
Some of our achievements:
Green Garden Girls High School Robotics Team (Pictured with First Lady Margaret Kenyatta on or homepage) – The girls robotics team, a team birthed and mentored through our Kenya: STEM Frontier program, is the first school from the entire continent of Africa to win a trophy during the FIRST World Robotics Tournament in the USA, April, 2018.
Alliance Girls High School, grand champions at the 2019 Kenya FLL Robotics Tournament – the all girls team went on to represent Kenya at the FIRST World Robotics Tournament in the US in April, 2019
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Capacity building workshops for teachers to demonstrate how to create STEM opportunities for their students and develop creative problem solving classrooms
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Led STEM Teacher training workshops in October, 2017 on CEMASTEA (Centre for Mathematics, Science, Technology Education in Africa) campus, focusing on the development of integrated STEM curriculum relevant to current Kenyan science and math standards, utilizing LEGO materials
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Developed vital working relationships with Kenyan colleges and other universities to demonstrate the value and use of STEM for developing relevant, 21st century PBL and Constructionism learning environments for students
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Conducted Kenya STEM Challenge Competitions, tournaments to engage students in utilizing on-the-spot problem solving abilities
Provided training and volunteers during 2017/18 for a successful launch of East Africa FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics tournaments and teams
Our sincere gratitude to the following organizations who have contributed to the efforts of our Kenya: STEM Frontier project: LEGO Foundation of Denmark; PITSCO of Kansas City, Missouri, USA; FIRST of New Hampshire, USA; STEM Education Inc. of Colorado, USA; CEMASTEA for hosting a STEM teachers workshop in 2017; and, the administrators and teachers of Alliance Boys High School, Alliance Girls High School, Njoro Boys High School, Precious Blood Girls High School, Larmudiac Provincial High School, Mount Kenya Academy, the Green Garden Schools, Mustard Seed Schools, and Naivasha Girls High School.
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Phase 3 - AND THE MOST IMPORTANT SHIFT
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In 2016 we introduced Arduino to 3 pilot schools - Alliance Boys, Alliance Girls, and Njoro Boys.
We saw the need to bring cutting edge materials at a lower cost to our students here in Kenya. As we found huge with those three schools we shifted our focus from just the secondary and university schools to the early learning and primary schools.
In 2019 we successfully started an Ltd. called Solutions To Achive Real Transformation or START. With our Kenya team and US team we began to develop materials that would teach STEM to any student anywhere. Even without electricity!
One of our motos is MADE IN KENYA FOR KENYA. Our goal was to make the highest quality product at a reasonable price.
For more information, call or email:
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Wilson Kihanda (Kenya)
Phone: +254 796 893051
Email: wilson.kihanda@istart.education
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