STEMGuyana is hosting a national scratch coding competition, which aims for students to create an animation project that’s displays a climate change issue within your country or community.
All animations should be uploaded to YouTube and submitted by March 15th, 2023.
In a telephone interview with this publication, Alisha Koulen, STEMGuyana’s programme analyst, said “The scratch coding competition was designed and created to empower youths. It is also used to generate curiosity in STEM Education and assist youths in developing various soft skills such as teamwork.”
Koulen noted that the kids will develop researching skills, since they would have to research about the topic (Climate Change) and then generate designs & animations to show what they’ve learnt using MIT’s Scratch Coding software.
She also mentioned that the main aim of the competition is for, “The students to learn how to collaborate and communicate effectively, because they’ll be working in teams. They will also develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Those are key skills we want young people to develop and take away from the competition.”
The competition is not only open to STEMGuyana club members, but to Guyanese primary and secondary school students aged 8-15 as well.
For persons who wish to participate with little to no knowledge of how to utilize the scratch coding application, they can visit STEMGuyana’s website(https://stemguyana.com/?mibextid=unz460)
and view step-by-step tutorials and even download the software.
Teams of 3-5 can indicate their interest to participate, by registering here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSds6FIwefCwhVX_rFgkI2JW91yyWyid2KEljy4qPfmkWOc89Q/view from.
Last year all 14 STEMGuyana teams, won bronze medals for their participation at the International Youth Robotics Competition (IYRC).
With support of funding and resources from organizations such as Tullow Oil, the IDB, and members of the Guyana Diaspora, STEMGuyana was able to open 40 Learning pods across all regions of Guyana, providing support to over 1000 children in closing the academic gaps created by the pandemic and preparing them for a 21st-century future.
For more information, the public can view from here: https://stemguyana.com/join-the-national-competition-100-teams-to-participate/.
