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HIGH ENGAGEMENT IN LOW RESOURCE SETTINGS

TEACHING STEM OUTSIDE THE BOX

October 2024

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AGENDA

Introductions
Peace Corps background
Guinea

Context for Secondary Science Education
Training Volunteers
Impact of STEAM Camp on students and teachers

Questions

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GUINEA CONTEXT FOR SECONDARY EDUCATION

Government goals:

Build modern, emergent agro-mining country via STEM education
Make STEM education relevant locally and internationally

Challenges in Guinea Education Systems:

Dropout rate, especially female students
Lack of STEM instructional materials
Low motivation
Critical-thinking skills

Peace Corps Guinea’s STEM Project goals:

Making instruction relevant for students
Prepare students for life and careers beyond secondary school

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Guinea sees an adequate STEM component of the education system as key to building a modern emergent agro-mining country that meets the challenges of regional and international integration of its economy and people, as well as providing correlation between the local job market and relevant students’ training in schools. That is why Peace Corps Guinea STEM project enhances the Government of Guinea’s bid to improve the quality of teaching and learning in secondary schools.
Schools in Guinea face challenges such as drop out at the secondary level namely female students; lack of STEM learning/teaching materials; lack of students’ and teachers’ motivation, severely limited critical thinking skills and creativity. Students mostly focus on passing exams and/or to next grades, are often promoted without the STEM skills intended, resulting in graduates who are not fully equipped to address the challenges of their community or country needs, or worse, their own well-being or that of their families.
The Peace Corps Guinea STEM project intends to make sure that classes offered in the classroom and activities conducted outside of the classroom be relevant for preparing students to meet the challenges of their everyday family and community lives, but also those related to later careers and adult life.

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CHALLENGES OF THE STEM TEACHING METHOD

Overcrowded classrooms
Low literacy rate of students
Adult literacy rate 45.33%, but a significant gender gap:

Male literacy rate: 61.15%
Female literacy rate: 31.27%

Few pedagogical resources in schools

No libraries
No laboratories
No computer centers

Linking theory to practice is challenging
Aiding students in seeing practical applications of content is challenging

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Plethoric numbers of students in schools: Despite a rather low literacy rate of Guinean children*, classrooms are very crowded in towns and cities around the country since the government has not kept the pace with growing needs of infrastructure in classrooms leading to a plethora of students in the public sector.
Gender imbalance: Guinean society is male dominated, and this is highly visible at the school system at all levels (teaching staff, administration, performance at school and achievement in life). According to UNESCO, it has an adult literacy rate of 45.33%. While the male literacy rate is 61.15%, for females is 31.27%, showing a big gap between the sexes.
Lack of pedagogical resources: Given these circumstances, that many public schools in Guinea has no functional libraries, no laboratories, no computer centers. Hence no experimentation, no demonstrations, no link between the classroom theory and practice, nor application of what students learn and their everyday life or a projection of potential professional careers.

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PEACE CORPS’ ROLE

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COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT DURING SITE VISITS�

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VOLUNTEER TRAINING

Step 1: Pre-Service Training – using locally available materials with the Guinea STEM curriculum.

Step 2: Volunteers and their Guinean partner teachers train each other on these techniques.

Step 3: Volunteers and Guinean teachers teach Guinean students in STEAM Camp.

Step 4: STEAM Camp participants share the information with their local communities.

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PEACE CORPS GUINEA STEAM CAMP

Purpose:

Bring students together for practical scientific demonstrations
Support from PC Staff and Counterparts
Linking theory to practice

Methodology:

Volunteers invite two students and one teacher
Volunteers plan the camp experiments after consulting with local Counterpart teachers
Experiments are hands-on
Consultants may lead experiments to support Volunteers and local Counterpart teachers
Camp participants are provided lodging, meals, and transportation

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Purpose: STEAM Camp is an activity organized by Peace Corps Volunteers, with support from Peace Corps staff and Counterparts. The camp brings student together for practical, scientific demonstrations. The idea is to link theory to practical demonstrations as Guinean schools lack science labs. STEAM camps are generally organized during the summer season while students and teachers are on vacation. The scientific demonstrations are profitable for both students and invited teachers.
Methodology: Education Volunteers are often asked to invite two students (one boy and one girl) plus a teacher. Volunteers plan the camp in consultation with local teachers to determine the required experiment which are required. Teachers led some demonstrations, but Volunteers also lead some. However, where a required experiment is complex for Volunteers to perform or explain in the local language, Consultants are invited to lead such experiments. Consultants are paid transportation and the services they provide.Students, teachers and Volunteers are invited to travel at a location where the camp is organized. Transportations charges are reimbursed, lodging is provided, and Peace Corps authorized Per Diem is paid to participants and Volunteers. Lunch may also be provided during camp days for all participants. The cost for transportation, lodging, food and training materials make-up the budget. Also, the training space is part of the budget as community contributions. Scientific demonstrations are conducted with hands-on activities for the duration of the camp.

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Peace Corps Guinea STEAM Camp Funding Process

Volunteers design and submit a grant request
PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Program) funding
Approval from Country Director and Small Grant Committee
Peace Corps Washington reviews and posts
Fundraising

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Funding: at Peace Corps/Guinea, this activity is Volunteer led therefore, Education Volunteers, through a lead Volunteer, design and submit a grant request through the Small Grant Coordinator. The funding mechanism is generally “Peace Corp Partnership Program” (PCPP). The grant follows the same review process as all other grants in VRG. It is reviewed and approved by the Country Director through the Small Grant Committee before sent to Peace Corps Washington for review, approval and posting. Funds are raised on-line through donation from the referrals list provided by Volunteers in the grant request. The PCPP team in Peace Corps Washington also contribute fund from Global funds, Sector funds or Memorial funds for which the grant qualifies. In stances where fund raising delays and the grant is time sensitive, the Country Director (CD) also approve Country funds to support the fund raising. Once the grant meets it funding needs, the PCPP team takes the grant off-line send a Memo to the Director of Management and Operations (DMO) authorizing obligation and processing of payment into the lead Volunteers’ bank account. Payment is processed and the lead Volunteer receives payment to implement the grant.
It's the responsibility of the lead Volunteer to keep all receipts for grant funds and community contributions to justify the amount spent on the STEAM camp.

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STEAM CAMP ACTIVITIES

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PEACE CORPS STEM PROJECT IMPACTS – GUINEA ED SYSTEM

Peace Corps Guinea STEAM Camps Total impact

152 students 60% are the girls, and 53 teachers from the remote communities where there is no laboratory

August 12-15,2024, STEAM Camp event

20 secondary-school aged students including 11 girls, 10 Guinean Teachers including 2 Women.

Post COVID-19 Peace Corps Guinea STEM Volunteers reporting data: 1503 students include 580 girls benefit STEM teaching approach. 467 Students and Teachers include 169 girls have access to the STEM laboratory facilities and materials.

Please see here :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTPBaXfSC64

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THANK YOU

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