STEMGuyana co-founder Karen Abrams generated much interest in the organisation’s model for STEM engagement of Guyana’s youth, which she presented to an energetic audience at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) eighth Annual Meeting.
Abrams, whose presentation was titled “Robots In The Caribbean”, showcased STEMGuyana’s activities in four quadrants: preparing the robotics national team, creation of social good apps, the training of STEM club trainers and expansion of the STEM club network throughout the country, and the management of a national robot building and Scratch coding competition throughout the country.
Abrams made the point that, “STEMGuyana is working with partners to make investments today which will pay off in 10, 15, 20 years. We want our young people to be prepared to provide technology services for the world. Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million people, is home to 14,000 tech startup companies; Guyana has a little more than half their population, so a target of 5000 Guyanese tech startups in 15 years is what we’re aiming for. STEMGuyana is working with partner organisations to make long-term investments in Guyanese youth.”
The presentation was also well received by leaders of Indigenous groups who expressed interest in making the programme accessible to their communities. Additionally, representatives from several Guyanese communities and Caribbean countries expressed interest in replicating the STEMGuyana model in their respective communities and countries.
STEMGuyana recently received the first tranche of a $2 million donation from GTT, which will be used to sponsor its upcoming robot exhibition and the expansion of STEMGuyana programmes across Guyana and the Caribbean.
The Clubhouse Story
Now that we are aware of the impact of STEMGuyana and the amount of interest its model is generating, let us look at the softer side of things. STEMGuyana team member Farnaz Baksh wrote this piece titled “The Clubhouse Story”:
Angel is a dedicated member of the Sports Hall STEM Club (usually visits every Saturday) while Makenna was a new student visiting yesterday. I met Makenna sitting in a corner of the room; it was her first time trying to learn Scratch programming. She was a bit shy but quite open to answering all of my questions [She doesn’t have a favourite subject at school; she loves everything. When I told her that she could create her own web and mobile apps, her eyes opened with excitement and she asked “HOW?!”
I shared her excitement and answered the best I could. A short while later, Makenna was stuck on creating her first Scratch program, so I told her there is another girl across the room who can help since she’s been creating programs for a while now. I introduced Makenna to Angel and Angel to Makenna.
A few minutes later, Angel was helping Makenna; they were creating a conversation program between two persons and had my teammate Ryan Benschop voicing the male character. We transitioned the clubhouse room into a re-coding studio for 5 to 10 minutes so they could finish their Scratch coding challenge.
Angel and Makenna became friends yesterday and two innovators have joined the STEMGuyana family. They also learned about collaboration and teamwork yesterday. With such enthusiasm to learn, I’m sure they will go on to help change Guyana and the world for the better! (Taken from STEMGuyana website) (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
