STEM Education in Africa: Changing the Equation

iNERDE's Colonie de Vacance STEM has been rechristened Ntomo Innovation Academy and is full swing in its third year in Mali and just completed its second year in Senegal. This year we've brought robots to Mali! We are using Affordable Education Robots created by Harvard University to help bring robotics education to places like Mali. AERobots are programmed with a visual language called MiniBloq that makes programming accessible to elementary school children with its easy manipulation of program structures, visual clues, and the elimination of syntax problems. Another important plus to the AERobots is that, unlike, for example, code.org, internet access is not required.

Nothing like the iNERDE robotics program has ever been seen in Mali - or most of Africa. Even instruction in programming is rare here ... at the University level. It has certainly never been offered to elementary school students. The kids are "crushing it" - we've formed a young cadre totally turned on to programming. We have two levels of classes. CodeNerde is our new follow-on program designed for the graduates of our main camp who have an basic background in the science needed to study robotics, computer science, and programming. CodeNerde students are getting a good dose of the physics of sensors, the philosophy of robots and artificial intelligence, and all the fundamental programming concepts applicable to robotic control. We have also added robots to our first year program, Ntomo Innovation Academy. All students have gotten an introduction to the AERbot and one of our project teams is preparing for a Hack-A-Thon where they will use basic robotic programming concepts.

iNERDE is getting a lot of attention in Mali. We were invited to lead a scientific exhibition for children on water issues which won us accolades from the President of the National Assembly of Mali and the Minister of Women, Children, and Families. iNERDE graduates were trained by us to serve as guides for the exhibition. We are working on plans to run our program year round, including bringing our unique robotics curriculum directly to the schools in Mali.

iNERDE is firing on all cylinders … except one. This year has been our worst year for fundraising. We are grateful for our wonderful donors that believed in us when we were more inspiration than reality but now that we have established a solid and recognized program in two countries we have encountered, ironically, some falling off of interest in our project from donors outside Africa. We understand that we are just one of many good causes and is natural that our « angels » that helped us get started expect us to develop a sustainable funding base. We are almost there – almost, but not yet. Despite not having enough money to run our camp this summer we decided we had to go forward. And people did step forward to help us. Donors contributed enough funds to pay for 30 full scholarships for poor public school students. Malians stepped forward and contributed over two thousand dollars, at a considerable sacrifice for many of these donors. We are, however, still a little short and are at risk to not be able to fund our last week of camp and acquit all our financial commitments in Mali. Not by much… less than $1500 … but this is a very significant sum in Mali.

We are so grateful for your support and the interest all of our donors have shown in our project and the children of West Africa. If you are able, please do consider making a small donation now to get us to the finish line. We will have significant developments to announce soon with respect to stablizing our funding situation and we promise to continue to do amazing things in West Africa that are really changing the equation.