By Olere Iluebbey | Project Leader
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses are fundamental to solving the challenges of today and the future. At MindAfrica, we believe every young student irrespective of social or economic background deserves a world-leading STEM education, one that engages and nurtures their unique talents, and provides the knowledge and skills they will need to participate fully as the creators and responsible citizens of tomorrow. That was the context with which this project was designed and implemented.
During the project’s life cycle from 2017 to 2018, MindAfrica implemented a series of STEM-focused workshops as in-school and out-of-school events which engaged 140 students from economically disadvantaged schools, who did not have opportunities to participate in technology-rich, inquiry-based learning programs. The approach employed the innovative use of technology to strengthen students’ knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This project built student’s design thinking skills by prototyping solutions to real problems in Energy, Security, and Environmental Waste.
Impact
In evaluating the impact of this program on under-resourced, underserved students, we collected and evaluated self-reported evidence from participants including teachers and instructors, student achievement data and internally commissioned evaluations which provided a comprehensive report of immediate and long term outcomes summarized as follows:
This concluding report showcases the positive impact that the program had, with evidence that it helped economically disadvantaged students by sparking their enthusiasm and boosting their achievement in STEM courses.
Funding
The intended project budget was estimated at $27,000 for a 2-year program but MindAfrica was only able to raise a total of $10,228 due to an economic downturn that affected majority of our donors. The sum of $379 was raised on the GlobalGiving platform while the sum of $9,849 was raised through local partnerships in the form of in-kind services and direct financial contributions in Nigerian currency.
We are deeply grateful to our donors who supported us in this project and we look forward to your continued support for other MindAfrica projects on GlobalGiving. For more information about MindAfrica, visit our website - http://www.mindafrica.org
By Olere Iluebbey | Project Leader
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
