If we are to go by the predictions of the development pundits, then within the next decade 80 per cent of jobs will require some sort of technological skill, so with this in mind the Belladrum STEM Club was birthed.
The Club was the idea of Lelon Saul, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority. Saul, who hails from Belladrum, West Coast Berbice, wanted to position the youths of the community to take advantage of the opportunities of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) age. However, initially he could not find someone to manage the Club. According to co-founder Melissa Gordon, the idea really got implemented after she attended a training seminar with STEMGuyana founder Karen Abrams.
“I attended that training and after that, the other Coach, Tyreke Wilson, he is a Computer Science student at UG. The two of us are working together. He came on board and we are launched the Club.”
When they launched the Club over three months ago, they started with over 20 students, since the intention was to focus on the secondary school youths, but soon after they started, primary school students started to show up. Melissa told the Sunday Times that presently they have over 60 students on roll explaining that they could not turn away the primary school children since the intention is to afford everyone the chance to take advantage of the opportunities.
“We would meet twice per week. Primary on Saturday and Secondary on Tuesday and Saturday from 2:30pm to 5:30. We are running two programmes in one. They are doing the Scratch programming and robotics,” she said.
Students who are in Form Three and below are being taught Scratch programming while the older students learn robotics, which is much more technical. However, the Club would soon be switching things up with students learning both robotics and Scratch programming. The Club is housed at the Community Development Centre Building with most of the equipment for the functioning being donated by local and overseas donors.
“All the materials we are working with has been donated and some people overseas came forward and donated stuff and so on.”
When asked about the impact of the Club, Melissa said that judging from the response of members, it has been “impactful”.
“The way the world is working everything is moving towards technology and they would have realised that and the parents also, and so it is important that we get them there. They are very excited and enthusiastic and they are learning. We have people from out of Belladrum coming here and it’s from as far as Mahaicony,” she said.
“We are hoping to get them into Information Technology and we are giving them the fundamentals they need for them to move on, so we’re hoping that with the knowledge they would have gained that they are going to take up study in IT that’s going to help them. We are hoping that we can get some great inventions coming out from them that we can use in the near future to solve some of the problems.”
At the recently-completed Robotics Expo, the Club had a successful run and showed off four robots. One of the robots tackled the garbage problem by being able to recognise recyclable waste while another had the ability to pick up any form of waste.
But the one that was most impressive was the demolition train robot that had the ability to not only demolish but also clean up. This caught the attention of Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes, who commended the group, noting that City Hall could utilise that robot.
For now, the Club is focused on making the members the best version on themselves while positioning them to take advantage of every afforded opportunity. (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
