STEM Clubs

STEM clubs facilitate exploration and hands on interaction with Tech for girls and children

Science and technology education in high schools in Kenya is still at the lowest among girls because of lack of exposure and awareness among teachers and students, poor financing for schools and teachers, lack of tools and equipment and lack of the right guidance for the schoolgirls. Further to this, there is an enduring perception by school girls that IT is a “difficult subject” for the few selected academically gifted students. Following this, many girls develop attitudes that bar them to pursue technical careers in IT post-secondary education. Children in primary schools in Kenya especially those that are from social economically disadvantaged households are less likely to be exposed to modern IT development because teachers and educators lack familiarity on IT, there is a perceived level of effort required to expose the primary school going children to IT, and poor government financing on IT infrastructure in primary schools. Following this, AkiraChix believes that access to education and training is of paramount importance for girls and children to support them in moving out of the vicious cycle of low-skills, low-productivity and as a pathway to bridging gender gap in Information & Technology industry. Removing barriers to access to training and education, and addressing specific needs of targeted groups, is thus essential for achieving highly competitive girls and children with 21st-century skills in information and technology. STEM Clubs by AkiraChix will run in high schools and primary schools targeting ages 13-18 and 7-12 respectively. The clubs will run within Nairobi with a goal of training 1000 students. These clubs are aimed at encouraging female high school students in Kenya to select careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, as well as expose Primary school going children to different facets of technology such as robotics, MIT Scratch etc. Similarly, Teachers and educators have been left out in decision making in the kind of tools that can be used to engage students in classrooms, teachers and Educators are not empowered with digital skills which would enable them to select and evaluate the most appropriate resources in Tech to use in the classroom. In an effort to support teachers and educators, AkiraChix will run training of trainers sessions to not only equip them with the knowledge,  tools and resources to train the students but also increase their confidence, impart digital skills that 21st Century teachers and educators need and essentially promote similar attitudes to the students. To keep the teachers and educators learning and up to date with technological advancements, we will connect them to other teachers networks that AkiraChix has been working with, these are networks of “digital warriors ” around the country. These are high school teachers who have self-organized though with little guidance to seek knowledge in ICT and how they can incorporate these digital skills in classrooms. We will also include them in our major ICT events, meetups, and conferences that will enhance their skills as well as promote their work.

Kenyan Primary and High School curriculum hasn’t evolved over time, which means Student’s are still learning outdated Technology such as Microsoft Access and Teachers and educators feel overwhelmed by technology today, or would like to use it more, but don’t know how or where to start. AkiraChix curriculum and interventions are designed in a way that the students are able to learn and interact with new tech and Teachers and educators are empowered and gain confidence in using ICT for learning. Our programs are heavily focused on both Students and educators in training of ICT.

Science and technology education in schools in Kenya is still at the lowest because of lack of exposure and awareness among teachers and students, poor financing for schools and teachers, lack of tools and equipment and lack of the right guidance for the students. Thus integrating technology in the school environment enhances the students learning as well as well as exposing them to 21st century skills

AkiraChix will run STEM clubs  in primary and high schools within Nairobi with a goal of training 1050 students, teachers and educators in 12 months.

We will also, run a Tech -Fair event , which is an event that will bring together different schools to showcase innovative solutions created during the in schools sessions. This will allow the beneficiaries to network with other schools as well as have a chance demo their projects.

Over the last four years, we have reached 4500 students in primary schools and secondary schools in Nairobi. With this reach, more schools have expressed interest to have the clubs run in their schools but limited resources have slowed down the number of schools we can on board. Our vision for the next three to five years is to reach 6000 beneficiaries, and continue to grow a network of teachers and educators while continuing to mobilize, train trainers of trainers and support them to implement the AkiraChix Curriculum.

We will partner with different schools and conduct in school weekly training sessions, one-week intensive boot camps as well as events that target the beneficiaries.

Through public and government partnership, we will aim to attend the Annual Head Teachers conference to connect with more teachers and educators

By continuously collecting feedback and engaging with our beneficiaries, we will continue to improve our curriculum and also maintain the fun necessary to engage this particular age group

Currently we are  serving 260 students, teachers and educators in primary schools and secondary schools in Nairobi. We work with them through activities such as:

- 1) ‘Weekly Sessions’ that are run in primary and high schools in Kenya for students who are members of a computer club in their schools. Girls and children are taught programming, graphic design, user experience and robotics.

- 2) Training of trainers sessions - these are run twice a year.

We expect to serve 1,050 people through:

• Training of trainers sessions (TOT).

• Weekly sessions in schools where girls and children learn programming and design thinking

• ‘Boot camps’, which are conducted during the school holiday. These are one-week intensive training sessions for primary and high school students that are not reached within the in-school weekly sessions.

• GGFest and Tech Fair. These are events that expose girls to new technology advancements but also give them an opportunity to compete among themselves.

In 3 years we expect to have served a total of 3,150 people.

The co-founders have over 10 years experience in the IT field and are considered leaders and role models in the tech industry in Kenya. Collectively they have been recognized as “The Unsung Heroes” by the US Embassy in Kenya, received awards and accolades such as Google Roots in Science and Engineering (RISE) Award, Quartz Africa Innovators 2016, media recognition including BBC click, the Huffington Post as well as fellowships and Executive education such as the Obama Foundation Leaders and Stanford Executive Program for Non-Profit leaders.AkiraChix boasts a strong team of expert ICT trainers, who work in the tech industry

AkiraChix STEM Clubs mainly target girls and children from low-income areas most of whom attend public schools. However, as part of our sustainability model, a fee will be charged to students with means who attend the holiday boot camps . We will also engage private schools willing to pay, and run weekly STEM Clubs in these schools. For every one private school that signs up, we will sign up for two public schools.  Earned revenue will allow us to expand our STEM Clubs and provide more opportunities to attract financial able participants and subsidize the clubs for the public schools.

Solve’s work to solve global challenges which aligns with AkiraChix work to solve low engagement of women in Tech and teachers and educators that aren’t conversant with 21st century digital skills. With Solves grant, AkiraChix will be able to advance our work and reach more schools, Teachers and Educators . We also, hope to connect with other innovators to work together to address the “teacher gap” and contribute to SDG 4 - “Quality Education For All”.

• Schools buy-in into the vision and agree to have STEM Clubs run on a weekly basis - With a partnership from Solve this will be a validation of the work we do enhance  Collaboration by current and potential partner schools

• Existing workload challenges for teachers - to mitigate this, we would need to support teachers with the curriculum delivery through modern teaching methods and teaching aids. With the Solve community, we hope to learn and try out methods that have worked elsewhere.