STEM Kits 4 Kids (SK4K)

Sk4K will create ready-made, self-contained STEM lab kits for girls and boys in Grades 7-10 that are linked to the Cambodian national STEM curriculum and offer simplified, streamlined procurement by local schools. Gender transformative teaching and learning resources and youth-designed videos will challenge gender norms limiting girls STEM career pathways.

In Cambodia, efforts to try to equip STEM labs with materials require complicated procurement planning since materials tend to be spread over multiple shops and countries. The materials usually arrive in schools in separate boxes leading to a very disorganized presentation in classrooms. Materials are often not cross referenced to lessons leaving teachers to figure out which materials are relevant to which lessons.Even well-organized schools would be greatly challenged to organize and equip its STEM Subject Classrooms in an orderly manner, and many of the schools receiving these materials lack strong management. The result is a very complicated procurement process for most projects and departments and poor utilization of materials that eventually make it into a Lab/Classroom. 

STEM Kits4Kids will develop material toolkits that are easy to use and well-aligned with the national curriculum. By streamlining the procurement process and supplementing all materials with lesson plans and student exercises, SK4K will develop affordable and organized materials that can be distributed nationally through self-contained kits. Additionally, SK4K will ensure that teachers are prepared to effectively use the materials in their classrooms and provide an engaging experience for students in STEM subjects through monitoring and training activities.

To strengthen schools’ capacity to expand girls’ employment skills and challenge gender norms limiting girls’ STEM career pathways, STEM Kits4Kids will produce and adapt videos designed by youth clubs. Videos will be disseminated through social media and youth clubs with facilitator guides and will catalyze social and behavior change with messaging and approaches to transform gender norms around girls’ capabilities, career and life trajectories, while also strengthening girls’ ICT and digital literacy skills. 

• STEM instruction in schools fails to engage girls and fails to provide hands on learning experiences. Only 11.2% of tertiary graduates in STEM fields in Cambodia are women. High national STEM failure rates:
  • Math: 76%
  • Chemistry: 55%
  • Biology: 49% 
  •  Physics: 30%
• Inadequate teacher training and teacher resources and a lack of STEM materials in the classroom. 
• Complicated STEM procurement process that requires expensive procurements outside of Cambodia. 
• Materials and resources are not cross-referenced to STEM lessons and teachers encounter difficulty when linking materials purchased through adhoc procurements with national curriculum. 

The ultimate result of SK4K will be a more efficient, reliable supply chain and procurement process for distribution of STEM teaching and learning resources. Increasing the availability of supplies in classrooms will contribute to the improved quality of STEM education. Additionally, gendered beliefs and practices in the home, school, and community environments limit their aspirational attitudes, agency and potential to learn. SK4K is rooted in the principle of putting girls at the center of creating their own agency while simultaneously addressing the intersecting social norms and economic barriers that exist within families, schools, and communities. 

• Develop affordable and organized materials that can be distributed nationally through self-contained kits. Prototype licensing and replication achieved.
• Produce short films showing teams of girls and boys solving STEM challenges and modeling 21st century education learning techniques. Films will be distributed through social media channels.
• Educators and administrators trained on effective strategies for teaching STEM and use of STEM kits; teachers demonstrate effective use of STEM kits, gender transformative teaching methodology and provide an engaging experience for girls and boys in STEM subjects.
• Girls report increased motivation and self-efficacy for STEM. Girls and boys demonstrate increased aptitude for STEM subjects.

• Content analysis completed

• 4 toolkit prototypes (along with kit subsets) completed for Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Mathematics that includes lesson plans and exercises.

• Successful licensing of all toolkit prototypes under Creative Commons. - 15 science and math classrooms equipped with STEM kits and instructional resources i.e. “User Sheets”

• At least 80% of trained teachers will demonstrate effectiveness in using the toolkits and gender transformative teaching methodology based on standardized observation tools. - 32 STEM teachers and 2 school managers effectively trained on the use of STEM prototype toolkits and gender transformative teaching methodology

• Short films designed and produced with youth clubs

• Surveys indicate increased self-efficacy towards STEM by girls

• Standardized Tests demonstrate that girls and boys evince pass rates of 75% or more for each subject across all pilot schools. - Girls and boys demonstrate increased aptitude for STEM. Girls report increased motivation and self-efficacy for STEM.

STEM Kits 4 Kids is an innovative solution to a multi-faceted problem with a large potential for scale, growth and impact. No licenses currently exist for STEM toolkit prototypes linked to the national curriculum. The team will not only develop affordable STEM lab kit prototypes with lesson plans and exercises, but will involve youth clubs in the design and innovative use of video technology to produce engaging content on STEM learning and 21st century skills. Teacher resources and training will be imbued with messaging and approaches to transform gender norms around girls’ capabilities and career and life trajectories for girls.

WEI recognizes that youth offer the greatest potential for breaking the cycle of exclusion and disadvantage, if given the right tools, technologies, resources, skills and space. Using a human centered design where solutions are designed together with girls and not for them, SK4K will ensure meaningful participation of girls and boys. Girls will be involved in design and implementation through youth clubs. Youth will be trained in assessment techniques to play a role in monitoring program activities and improvements. This approach enables adolescent girls to be more visible, gain more agency and confidence, and express their needs, ideas, and concerns.

• SK4K will develop affordable and organized materials that can be distributed nationally through self-contained kits.
• Youth videos will be disseminated widely through various social media channels, promotional events and through student clubs.

The present project anticipates high demand from government and development partners in the STEM subjects as investments in the secondary education sector expand. As noted at the outset of this proposal, STEM-based materials procurements are very complicated and often require expensive procurements from outside of Cambodia, which greatly amplifies costs, to say nothing of the difficulty that teachers encounter to link materials purchased through ad hoc procurements with the national curriculum. The availability of standardized STEM toolkits comprised of materials that are compiled in country and clearly linked to the national curriculum through accompanying didactic materials such as lesson plans and student exercises should prove very attractive to Ministry and development partners. The open licensing of the toolkits, advocacy among publishers (including TTS), and strong demand for such materials among government and development partners makes for a compelling sustainability strategy to ensure wide replication and utilization of the proposed materials.

There are three key risks identified with low-medium likelihood. World Education has already developed a risk management plan, which includes escalation point and mitigating actions for the following risks:

• Continuing Momentum of Educational Reform and Upcoming Election
• Teacher Motivation to Use Materials
• Teaching to the Test Proclivities in the Higher Grades

http://stories.worlded.org/youth-on-the-move/

http://cambodia.worlded.org/

https://www.facebook.com/WorldEdCambodia/

Access to an unparalleled network of innovators, experts and leaders to strengthen the proposed solution and support scale of the model in other regions where appropriate. Increase the visibility of the solution and identify further partners and resources.

• Kampuchean Action for Primary Education (KAPE): largest local NGO in education sector in Cambodia. KAPE and MoEYS are implementing New Generation Schools – a reform preparing youth for 21st Century marketplace. 
• Ministry of Education, Youth, & Sport (MoEYS) 
• Thunthean Seksa (TTS): social enterprise developing and disseminating materials in public schools.

N/A