STEM is an acronym (each letter represents a word) that represents the words Science, Technology, Engineering, Math. Now if we are to believe most people in our society, they would say that Science and Math are difficult subjects and only the ‘bright’ kids do well in those subjects.
STEMGuyana leaders disagree with those beliefs! The STEMGuyana program was created to make STEM education interesting and fun for children and was designed by experts who created the program’s content so that it would excite, educate and inspire Guyana’s youth in every single community; to pursue careers that would allow them contribute meaningfully to the rapid development of their communities, their region, their country and the world.
The STEMGuyana Program
STEMGuyana, in partnership with the government of Guyana, members of the Guyana Diaspora and organizations like Tullow and the IDB, introduced education technology to Guyana’s children more than 6 years ago. STEMGuyana leaders are encouraged that many organizations have now introduced a version of robotics to children across Guyana, the ecosystem has increased substantially. Education technology however, is much more than robotics or coding alone.
Education technology is the use of technology to scale education delivery and to improve student engagement (student interest) and academic outcomes for pupils from every community. So STEMGuyana leaders believe that the coding or robotics or artificial intelligence or arduino technology that we teach must be connected to actual academic improvement because students won’t be able to innovate and work on advanced technology projects if they do not understand at least the fundamentals of math and they won’t understand math if they do not know how to read and comprehend.
Why STEM in your village?
STEM education is important to every village in Guyana because it will inspire, prepare, and educate a handful of future leaders and innovators from every region, who will then work to bring solutions to problems in their home communities, whose future innovations will create jobs in their communities, who will work in technology, who will lead major projects and be more globally competitive because of the soft skills like conflict resolution, problem solving, communication and innovation which all children will acquire from participation in STEMGuyana programs. If the children from your village are not prepared for the 21st century job industry in Guyana, they will simply be left out.
For Parents
Parents are critical to the future success of children. If your child is involved in a STEMGuyana program–whether learning pod, STEM club, robotics team member, contributor to the “Robin The Robot” tv show or any STEMGuyana project, it is important that they commit to the program and show up everytime, because It is practice that makes perfect and your child will not be able to learn what they need to or practice the skills they need, unless they show up.
STEMGuyana is not a fad. It is for those talented children in every community and from every ethnicity in Guyana, who tinker and who are creative and who are into video games and who love to break and fix things. These children exist in every community and we want them to attend a STEMGuyana program in their own community. These young people are Guyana’s future innovators who will contribute significantly to the nation’s development, but first their Math and English and Science and creative skills must be strengthened.
STEMGuyana intends to help prepare the next generation of public and private sector leaders from the Caribbean, and we want them to come from diverse communities, so parents from every village are important to ensuring that representation happens.