Two-hundred and fifty students from five Junior High Schools in Tema West have received free practical science training, aimed at boosting their interest the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The students who were drawn from St John Bosco, Aggrey Road No.2 JHS, Mexico JHS, Community Five Number One Basic School, and Salvation Army formed STEM Clubs for their school to develop their interest in its learning.
The five months training saw the students and their teachers receiving training in robotics, plastic recycling, and basic electronic circuits, among others which equipped them with basic technological skills, and developed their creativity, innovation and problem solving skills.
The training was sponsored by Indorama Ventures Limited (IVL), a plastic waste recycling company, which decided to impact on the schools located within its operation area by presenting 500 science sets for the schools to train their students in STEM.
The students during an exhibition showcased a number of innovations including a drone, life jackets, plastic recycling game, Bluetooth speakers all made from plastic waste, as well as water irrigation pumps.
Master Jerry Johnson Bissah, a beneficiary, said the training had imparted a lot of skills to him when furthering his education, saying he and his colleagues with the help of their teacher manufactured the drone as they had always wanted to experiment with it.
Mr Charles Ofori Antipem, Co-Founder of Dext Technology Limited, manufacturers of the Dext Science Set and trainers of the students, told the Ghana News Agency that it was about time Ghana moved from the theory based teaching of science to the practical to secure the future of the country.
Mr Antipem said students must be trained in project based learning which was the 21st century educations being used by some countries including Finland and Singapore, explaining that under that, learners develop a purpose and reason for what they were learning for instead of learning for the sake of it.
He stated that, “for instance if they learn about electronics, you can frame it that there is COVID-19 in the system and people touching the tap in a bid to wash their hands is dangerous.
“Therefore think of ways to create a system that will enable you to wash your hands without touching the tap. You start with the project and then look for the materials needed to build it”.
He said project based learning had proven that it was an effective way of learning “we have seen the students do amazing projects, drones, security systems, irrigation system, games and they can tell you the scientific concept that they applied to build the project, so they understood it well and had fun while learning”.
He said project based learning had proven that it was an effective way of learning “we have seen the students do amazing projects, drones, security systems, irrigation system, games and they can tell you the scientific concept that they applied to build the project, so they understood it well and had fun while learning”.
Mr Antipem said they want to collaborate with government to extend such training to all schools in the country indicating that every material needed to do all the experiments in the schools’ curriculum was in the science set therefore no need to get a lab before having practical.
