By Sushobhan Chimoriya | Programs and Communications Officer
Kathmandu Fellow Swati Dutta with the students after completion of the sessions.
As part of the nine month fellowship every fellow had to conduct a session to the school level students of the public school that includes:
The Hour of Code is a one hour session on introduction of computer science using Scratch platform. The main intention of this program is to introduce problem solving and coding concepts to students at their young age. This is really important to bridge the gender disparity in technical field by introducing computer science to the grassroot level. Similarly, in career counseling, fellows help students to explore the career opportunities one can get in the field of technology. They also help them unfold the pathways to pursue computer science, engineering and IT for higher education. Lastly, in the internet security session, fellows shed light on cyber ethics to be mindful of while using social media and how one can stay safe while using the internet.
First of all, we conducted several ToT sessions to the fellows on how to lead these sessions and curate content for school students. This covered information on event planning, dealing with potential challenges, structuring one-hour sessions, necessary preparations, backing up data before sessions, contacting schools, and post-event follow-up. Additionally, fellows also learned about the Scratch, a platform, and built their own project using the Scratch tutorials. They explored Scratch flow, created projects, experimented with various blocks, and showcased their projects for others..
Then, our fellows formed and led their own team to conduct school activities at 11 public schools in and around Kathmandu Valley reaching 266 students. The sessions were mainly conducted for students in grades 6 to 9, which is an influential age group who can really benefit from opportunities like these which are provided few and far in between, especially for public school students. About 74% of the students’ demonstrated an increase in knowledge on computer science and coding, while 85% showed increased awareness of online safety after the session.
This session was not only fruitful for students but was also a learning step for our fellows about project planning, execution, collaboration and team building. Based on the feedback collected from the fellows, many shared how they felt nervous because they hadn’t led such sessions before. But despite the nerves, they found the experience rewarding because of how attentive and engaged the students were. And with this, 13 of our fellows have already completed their school activities; Hour of Code, Internet Safety session and Career counseling to secondary school students, encouraging them to choose tech for their higher studies showing them possibility and opportunities in tech world along with teaching them how to use and navigate internet safely.
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