Heather and I met at MIT Scaling Development Ventures conference in 2017, an event hosted by MIT D-Lab to bring social entrepreneurs and supporters together to make a more equitable world. Heather, who received PhD of Mechanical & Ocean Engineering from MIT, shared her story: Practical Education Network (PEN). I was moved and touched by her mission to change the status quo* and creativity to provide hands-on, minds-up STEM education in West Africa. We became friends since…
Heather and PEN team start with teacher training (via a series of workshops) and use locally available, low cost materials (e.g. banana, bottle cap) to enable hand-on science projects and activities. Even better, teachers can apply the learning-by-doing in the existing education programs and complement the national curriculum. Since 2014, PEN has trained more than 3500 teachers and they’ve enhanced more than half a million students’ education in Ghana. According to PEN, An impact control trial carried out in 6 public schools in Greater Accra Region has shown 97% greater increase in exam scores over one academic year.
I joined the #GivingTuesday2020 to become a PEN pal, for $20 a month, we can support a student in Ghana with hands-on STEM education for an entire year. What a great gift that will last a lifetime? You don’t need to be a millionaire to make a difference. Join the movement!
*”Around 250 million children are not learning basic skills, even though half of them have spent at least four years in school… Investing in teachers is key: in around a third of countries, less than 75% of primary school teachers are trained according to national standards.” – UNESCO Global Monitoring Report 2013/14
* “Among grade 6 students in West and Central Africa in 2014, less than 45 percent reached the “sufficient” competency level for continuing studies in reading or mathematics—for example, the rest could not answer a math problem that required them to divide 130 by 26.” – World Bank World Development Report 2018