Labs for All: Creative Project-Based Learning in Schools.

We transform Brazilian schools into environments for scientific experimentation and technological innovation by offering educational consultancy that leads to the implementation of Creative Project-Based Learning, including: inspirational lectures, local training on fabrication techniques, online didactic resources, and contextualized building of low-cost lab equipment by teachers and students for further experimentation.

Students will encounter a world of job uncertainties. The skills essential for working in the future can be properly developed through the execution of projects that follow a methodological framework, which aims to foster the creation of innovative solutions for real-world problems by the students. However, most Brazilian schools lack the culture of experimentation - essential to implement a project-based education.

We transform learning more meaningful and useful for students by training teachers to facilitate projects with low-cost technologies in order to implement the culture of experimentation, empowering their students with 21st century skills.

1. Teachers will not have to search for initial training and fundamental educational technologies. Our highly-competent consultants will come to their schools equipped with a mobile lab with curated educational and fabrication technologies, and awe-inspiring didactic material, saving their time.

2. Our consultancy will make teachers confident, unafraid, and recognized, training them to facilitate the developing of innovative and contextualized projects by their students, generating large social media attention and prizes.

3. Teachers will no longer lack resources for experimentation because they will learn building and adapting low-cost lab equipment with their students, supported by partner universities and makerspaces, allowing continued experimentation, learning and cultural growth.

We chose schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro, focusing on those inside slums. Schools that lack financial resources will elaborate a crowdfunding campaign with our facilitation together with a crowdfunding company. Crowdsourcing will cover the costs of consultancy, materials, and fees.

As we unfold our work in Brazil, our processes, narratives, and solutions that teachers and students came up with, and much more, will be shared on our online learning platform to inspire, step-by-step, changes in schools around the country and world. 

Our revenues will grow exponentially through exclusive online courses and materials, and long-term counseling paid by premium costumers.

In Brazil, regarding information provided by the Ministry of Education, 74.8% of the schools lack spaces for experimentation or clear programs for scientific experimentation. Moreover, teachers tend to use labs seldom, with most schools lacking new educational technologies. Lab managers rely on expensive equipment, bringing insecurity to the students and teachers who are afraid to break them. Furthermore, most teachers lack training to facilitate projects-based education because they do not have time to search for courses or have financial resources to enroll. When they do, they report courses to be overly theoretical, not fostering a technological and innovative thinking.

We fused Project-Based Learning and Creative Learning (MIT) into our own approach: Creative Project-Based Learning, in which students use or produce technological solutions and low-cost DIYBIO lab equipaments that are adapted to their social realities, modernizing Paulo Freire´s guidelines of social constructivism. The literature for PBL is vast, showing the success of structured approaches, seldom used in Brazil. We published an article on our new approach, and two projects (1,2) based on a prototype of our idea that is leading to large repercussion and positive feedback from educators, partners, and public sector.

The main impact of our solution is fostering high quality education for all in the schools we will be acting, and in those we will inspire changes through online reports and training. 

1. More students will find or create better jobs with an entrepreneur mindset, and more students will be able to reach high education, highly limited in Brazil.

2. Teachers will teach better and be recognized for their social, scientific, and cultural roles in shaping societies more technological, innovative, and equitable. 

3. Schools will reach better educational indexes, prompting demands for better educational policies, practices, and governmental support.

Contracts signed with us and later evaluation of progress. - 10% of schools in Rio working with disadvantaged students engaje and implement our early program.

Public results of ENEM, a national exam that leads to acceptance to universities, and accessment with schools of their students´ path after they left school. - Increasing the rates of acceptance of students in universities and employment.

Observe progress in the IDEB, the most respected nacional educational index, provided publicly, for each school, every year, by the Ministry of Education. It includes the rate of evasion and rates of reprovation. - Increasing in the educational indexes for the schools we are working with.

We developed our own approach: Creative Project-Based Learning that empower students and teachers by offering an up-to-date perspective of problem-solving education through the use and production of low-cost technologies in contextualized projects with socioeconomic and environmental positive impact. Technology is here seen as a mean to empower people, not as an end for consumerism, helping them to crowdsource in order to build low-cost lab equipment and reach higher-level educational training to create better school infrastructures and services. We reinforce engagement and innovation by designing smart didactic materials that develop learning, even without access to the Internet, reality of many schools.

Our solution is human-centered, not technological centered. We say that because we see technological advances not for consumerism, another option to be purchased, but rather as efficient tools that, when properly used and popularized, increase life quality and reduce inequalities. We then properly use technological advances by providing educational services and tools that will help and empower disadvantaged people from developing countries to come up with their own local and sustainable solutions. We use crowdsourcing as a mean to engage people in their own challenges and empower them to find means to solve inequalities. We are all makers!

People will access our services and curated DIYBIO technologies in person and online. We will contact schools directly, set up inspirational meetings, and engage them to contract our consultancy. The implementation of the culture of experimentation will cost a fraction of what it would normally do if a standard company would be contratced, as we do not host an office, resale low-cost technologies in a mobile lab, and have a network of trained freelancers and volunteers. If school do not have financial resources, we will make sure they crowdsource to implement the project. The online material will be mostly free.

Our social business will generate profit that will be reinvested in the growth of our social impact. We will focus on the low-income and more disadvantaged schools with our crowdfunding, charging a 10% fee for our facilitation in the campaign and including all other expenses to the campaign itself.

We will also offer the training to private schools, in this case, the value of the service will be higher because allows access to online premium content. Nevertheless, our general consultancy allows the fundamental equitable tools to increase the metrics we propose and implement the culture of experimentation.

Premium materials will guarantee exponential growth, further supporting our action in less advantaged communities. Additionally, we will seek for external funding and sponsor for other courses and events about our methodology and DIYBIO tech. Lectures and courses in third-parties events will add to revenues.

The number of schools that engage might turn out not sufficient to keep our activities sustainable, more marketing will be employed in this case. Teachers might not develop the skills in the rate we expect and, in this case, extra workshops will be provided for free by volunteers. The network of the students and educators might not be capable to contribute to crowdfunding, the size of the school network will have to be taken into account. The Brazilian economical-political crisis might make contracting difficult, but our prices are competitive due to the nature of our digital organization and decentralized procedures.

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Considering the power of its international connectivity, I believe exposing our project to a large audience, hoping that our passionate ideas will be taken into account, makes it all worth. If we are chosen, this will prompt new experiences that can lead to steady growth, specially if we manage to be funded. We will find like-minded people who will support us along our path. If not, we will continue doing and polishing the idea until it becomes reality and we truly hope we can count on you. We do this with a mission, and I hope you see it!

SyntechBio network, Foldscope, network of freelancers (teachers and technologists), salers of eletrical/tech components in Brazil, Makerspaces/FabLabs, labs in public universities: UFRJ, UERJ, and UFBA. 

Public and private Brazilian universities; public and private consultants in Brazil; public sector.