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Students across the globe are suffering nearly insurmountable learning loss (UNESCO ’22) and nearly half of Guyana’s children who had limited or no access to internet services during the pandemic must now catch up for the two years of learning loss created by the COVID pandemic.
Members of the Guyana Diaspora, Tullow Oil, the IDB, and several other local public and private partners have come together to sponsor the creation of a national (virtual) parent academy as part of the national Learning Pods programme.
Because a recent STEMGuyana parent survey indicated that 64% of parents struggled with their children’s homework beginning from 3rd grade Maths; organization leaders decided to invest in the design and creation of a program to empower parents to learn and then teach their own children. It is the first program of its kind in Guyana.
Parents are now able to register for the parent academy on the Learning Pod app, select their child’s grade level and review lesson plan topics which coincide with the Ministry of Education’s 1st – 10th grades curriculum for Math, Science & English. The parent academy is managed by professionals from the Guyana Diaspora who will host Saturday and Sunday virtual classes for those parents who need additional support.
There is no greater investment that a parent can make in the future than to invest in the education of their children. All parents are encouraged to sign up today for the parent academy at www.k12ed.live. For more information, contact stemguyana@gmail.com.
GENEVA TO HOST THE 2022 FIRST GLOBAL CHALLENGE EVENT
Youths from more than 180 countries will unite to compete in the Olympics-style Robotics Competition 13-16 October
For the first time since 2019, Team Guyana Robotics 2022; yet to be selected, will join high school students, mentors, volunteers, and supporters from more than 180 countries in the spirit of global purpose, unity, and collaboration.
There is no more appropriate place for this year’s FIRST Global Challenge than Geneva, the “Capital of Peace” where nations gather to solve diplomatic challenges and where scientific innovation flourishes. FIRST Global provides an opportunity for young people across the globe to leverage the power of technology, use their knowledge and abilities, and cooperate to collectively tackle the planet’s most pressing challenges. The event is the culmination of year-long activities centered on student teams who use a standard kit of parts to design and assemble a robot to complete tasks in a themed game. Throughout the competition, they will join forces with other teams’ robots in the spirit of Cooperation in an “Olympics”-style experience unlike any other.
“Robin The Robot” STEM TV show relaunched as part of Learning Pods curriculum and STEM club recruiting of new members
The “Robin The Robot” TV show which is locally produced by a talented team of Guyanese youths has been reintroduced as a critical component of the Learning Pods program and as part of the assessment process for STEM club membership. “The Robin show provides a holistic and real world application of STEM education in a fun and engaging way and we use it to supplement our strong academic program”, stated Marketing & Development Director, Caleb Christian. “We also now require that new prospects for our STEM clubs watch a few shows to make sure that the content will peak their interest”, Christian continued. The ‘Robin The Robot’ show is an exciting and educational show which shares the adventures of Robin, Orby and friends as they learn about Science and engineering topics, build robots, create scratch projects and solve math equations to revive the show’s star Robin, when he loses energy. The Program is aired on the Learning Channel, every Saturday at 9:00am and can also be found online at www.robintherobot.tv.
The Industry and Innovation Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister takes ICT classes to communities across Guyana
The Industry and Innovation Unit’s ICT Literacy Programme continues at Perth Village, Mahaicony, Region 5.
Recent beneficiaries include approximately thirty residents from Kildonan Village and forty recipients from Chesney Village, Corentyne Berbice. After the programme, beneficiaries gained the knowledge of basic computing skills and overall confidence in improving their school and work performances. ICT Literacy programmes were also held at the Eddie Grant Resource Centre, Plaisance and the Kintyre / Borlam Neighbourhood Democratic Council, Corentyne Berbice. Training programs usually last for four days and continues nationwide.
Guyana school children gifted game-changing literacy Graphogame app
Following its successful rollout in countries across the globe and more recently in Jamaica’s primary education system, Guyana’s school children will now have access to the Graphogame literacy app. STEMGuyana has partnered with GTT in the game’s rollout phase of implementation by notifying parents via a sponsored national SMS campaign and virtual launch event.
Graphogame was developed by linguists, neuropsychologists and speech pathologists from the Finland-based Grapho Group after 25 years of research, Graphogame is an educational game, with proven efficacy in achieving basic literacy, equal to one-to-one teacher support, among children in the four to nine age group. The game has been used in Finland for the past 10 years and has subsequently been adopted in the United States, Jamaica and other countries, with impressive results. The app is made available to all Guyanese school children courtesy of STEMGuyana, and is incorporated into the organization’s IDB and Tullow Oil-funded Learning pod programme.
According to a recent press release, “The pilot rollout in Jamaica has demonstrated that this app can play a very important role in bridging gaps in our early childhood education system, which are now widening as a result of COVID19,” said Simone Sobers, founder of WWKIDS. “It is interactive, intuitive and user friendly, and best of all, it is free. Once downloaded, it can be played without connectivity and data, which is significant at a time when children may have increased access to devices through several governmental and private sector initiatives, but still lack connectivity and have no access to data,” she continued.
Download free app from stemguyana.com/graphogame. IOS users must be registered to the Guyana app store. Please report download issues to stemguyana@gmail.com.
National “Learning Pods” program Continues To Expand
The IDB-Tullow Oil-Diaspora funded “Learning Pods” program is a national after school program which provides technology integrated academic support services to mostly vulnerable children in what will soon be 40 centers across all 10 regions of Guyana.
The programme currently enrolls 715 students in 29 locations across 8 regions of Guyana, with the target of 40 locations across all 10 regions, set for July of 2022. The Learning pods program uses an app powered by an AI engine to manage all components of the programme. More than 1300 technology integrated lesson plans in Math, English & Science have also been created to guide students, teachers, volunteers and parents through simplified concepts–empowering all of them to aid in student learning. Students enrolled in the program also earn virtual coins for attendance and for completing their lessons, which they can use to purchase school supplies, arts & crafts & games from the program’s virtual store.
The remaining expansion of the programme for 2022 will include pods in regions 1, 8 & 9. Contact stemguyana@gmail.com if interested in opening a Learning Pod in any of these regions. Interested parties must identify locations with internet access.
The Industry and Innovation Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister takes ICT classes to communities across Guyana
The Industry and Innovation Unit’s ICT Literacy Programme continues at Perth Village, Mahaicony, Region 5.
Recent beneficiaries include approximately thirty residents from Kildonan Village and forty recipients from Chesney Village, Corentyne Berbice. After the programme, beneficiaries gained the knowledge of basic computing skills and overall confidence in improving their school and work performances. ICT Literacy programmes were also held at the Eddie Grant Resource Centre, Plaisance and the Kintyre / Borlam Neighbourhood Democratic Council, Corentyne Berbice. Training programs usually last for four days and continues nationwide.
Innovation Challenge 2022
The Office of the Prime Minister- Industry and Innovation Unit, in partnership with GTT, recently held its inaugural Innovation Challenge 2022 at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre. Over three days, coders and software developers created a software prototype that can foster environmental sustainability.
First, second and third place winners were awarded trophies and prizes. Team Frameperfect led by Malik Williams won first place, Team Techbenders led by Satesh Persaud won second place while Team LogiQ which included members Julius Simon, Diante Callendar, Shemaar Moore, Darshani Jumma and Nicholas Seetaram won the third place award. Congratulations to the amazing and talented young Guyanese innovators.
