D.E.C.R for Public Schools

Solutions and creativity projects to up learning!

A transformative education that develops creativity and impact, a crucial learning for the development of developing countries, is not a reality in Brazil and in many countries. In my city (CASCAVEL - CE, in northeast of Brazil) in the public schools there is a high level of dropout, learning deficits, teachers and discouraged students. Classrooms do not encourage students and teachers to think "outside the box", the simply replicate prefabicated knowledge and learnig doesn't dialogue with the comunity. D.E.R.C (Development of Engineering and Scientific Research) for Public Schools is a transformation platform for public education where students and teachers devolop cooperative social impact projects to SOLVE student community problems (in social, cultural, economic, environmental áreas). The project consists in the mobilizing all teachers and students to identify problems of the poor community. Materials were developed to guide the development of impact projects, teachers were given specific training to work on curricula contents in the projects and use of technological and personal resources in an outside classroom learning. After a year of production and project learning, students present their creations, research and innovations that have been applied in the community. The projects are submitted to national awards for fundraising and school improvement. Solutions were developed for access to water, waste treatment, community river cleaning, reading and learning, conservation of local cultural heritage, food production and sustainable agriculture, improvement of the housing conditions of poor families ... Enables the transformation of the community through the constant resolution of problems that are crucial to the sustainable development of the world. The application of the project in other cities is a solution to improve the world, using education as a developmental phenomenon for students and teachers committed to social entrepreneurship.

My idea is innovative because it meets the challenge of generating impacts for crucial problems in Latin America and the Caribbean while strengthening the education of public schools. In addition to using technological resources such as social networks, the project proposal is responsible for developing creative solutions in science and engineering for problems identified in the communities where schools are inserted.

In addition to serving as a research source, all extension educational work in the creation, development, and application of science / engineering ideas / projects is done using technology as an integrating resource. In addition to face-to-face activities, disruptions, enhancements, are mediated in collaborative virtual environments. Without technology, the project would be unfeasible, because what makes it creative is precisely a differentiated application for resources, such as social networks, in promoting learning and generating impact by teachers and students themselves.

1 - Expand the business model to other Brazilian states and other countries;
2 - Develop education solutions that dialogue with other crucial sectors, for example, the continuing education of teachers and school administrators;
3 - Expand the sources of financial funding to add to the projects more possibilities of student development, for example with the increase in the participation of events and scientific fairs / social entrepreneurship;
4  Develop a collaborative online platform to enable the connection between teachers and students from around the world from the model of this project; 5 - Impact and change education in disadvanteged countries and regions

My idea has the potential to become self-sustaining to make communities sustainable through solutions and projects in science and engineering created by teachers and students. Thus, my vision is that an increasing number of teachers, schools and students can adopt my project to boost learning and social development. My vision is that in five years 50% of the Brazilian public schools of disadvantaged communities will start to use this project model, so that other institutions are inspired and transformed. I wish in 5 years to transform the education of all public schools in my state and country.

The acquisition will be done through funding and funding bodies for education projects and in the categorical areas of projects developed by students and projects. (In 2018 we are raising funds with the Ford Foundation Grants, Bank of the Brazil Foundation, among other organizations that specific funds for this type of project). The resources obtained will be exclusively destined to the application in the projects. Community and civil society organizations can also be included as vehicles for community transfer of capital and funds.

Currently my idea is being implemented in 2 public schools, serving 820 students, 60 teachers, 6 school administrators and the community (8000 people) benefited directly or indirectly by my project and the solutions in science and engineering developed by students and teachers. 8860 people are impacted and inserted in the problem solving process of the environment solution, products and services generated by my idea. In addition to actively participating in the process of ideation, these people act in the implementation, acquisition, expansion, products, and services, promoting a wide scale of social impact.

I wish that in 12 months the total number of people served is double what it is today and in three years I expect this total to be five times higher than the current one. This requires the development of a network / app that allows managing the ideas, products and processes created in a collaborative and sustainable virtual environment. In addition to enabling students / teachers from different countries to exchange knowledge and collaborate with ideas and projects, courses and training workshops and spaces will be made available for the dissemination of potential sponsors and sponsors.

Good communication; Motivation; Ability to delegate and execute; Commitment; Leadership; Team work and Passion for education and social impact

Our revenue model is based on the donation of funding agencies for innovation in education, national awards and partnerships with the public sector and the third sector. In addition, we are investing in the patents trade of products developed by students and teachers as a line of capital raising for the enterprise. 

I seek partnership. I am looking for people who can help make my project as impactful as possible. People who, like me, believe that we can transform the world by solving problems. I applied for SOLVE because I believe that in the program I will find the kind of person I am looking for. I want to count on a mentor who comes from the place with the most entrepreneurial square meter in the world. The experience, a trained vision, tools, will be essential so that my idea can be implemented in other places and impact education!

Faced with the objectives outlined, one of the main obstacles is finding a team that specializes in developing a specific education program / app in the shape of my project. Institutional partnerships with universities and research groups are viable proposals for SOLVE to help in the process of expanding my idea. Through mentoring, networking, connecting people and directing ideas, offered by SOLVE, these barriers can be overcome. Thinking about a project improvement is also essential, by immersing in SOLVE we can perfect the idea and make it more impactful and effective on the education segment.