Synapse Education Ltd

Mission Statement

Synapse education is on a mission to solve Africa’s challenge of providing quality STEM & Technology education at scale. We are creating an African generation that is employable, at par with children from developed countries and digitally relevant.

Vision:

We envision a future where Africa's youth population is not a liability, but a powerful asset driving positive social and economic change.

Core Values:

1. Equity: We believe all children, regardless of background or circumstance, deserve an equal opportunity to excel in STEM education.
2. Impact-Driven: We are relentless in our pursuit of measurable results, constantly iterating based on evidence and feedback to maximize our impact.
3. Scalability by Design: We develop and implement solutions with scalability in mind, aiming to reach the greatest number of students possible
4. Financially Sustainable: We believe that the systems can cause impact are the ones that can be sustained on their own.
5. Entrepreneurial Spirit: We foster a culture of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and problem-solving to achieve breakthrough results.

Team Lead for LEAP Project will be Dhiraj Khot, Co-founder & Chief Program Officer. He plays a crucial role in several areas:

Product Leadership:

1. Vision and Strategy: Leads the creation and execution of the product roadmap that aligns with educational curriculum.
2. Product Development: Oversees the conceptualization, design, and delivery of product features, including both hardware and software 
3. Quality Assurance: Ensure that quality standards are met. 

Partnership Development:

• Ecosystem Building: Identity and build connections and collaborations with key players within the educational technology ecosystem
• Liaison with education ministry and advisors to Government 

 As Co-founder, Dhiraj has the authority to make and enforce decisions related to the product's development and its alignment with the LEAP Challenge's goals. His experience and expertise makes him suitable to take on the position of team lead.

 Dhiraj is a serial entrepreneur, hands-on teacher/educator with 10+ years of experience in education domain. He has worked to set up school chain in Africa, launch smart classrooms in Rwanda, and developed innovative approaches to education in Africa during pandemic. He has on-ground understanding of African education system and challenges. He has conducted several teacher training programs to bridge technology-pedagogy gap.

For Synapse, creating & strengthening evidence base of our products and program is a priority – because we believe that only by strengthening our evidence base, we can achieve the desired scale. We see LEAP Sprint as part of our ‘flow’ and roadmap. Not only our team lead, but our executive team is committed to driving this.

 Synapse organization has two dimensions – country operations and strategic central unit. Our team structure enables us to delegate operational work and execute it. So Synapse’s leadership will be able to easily able to accommodate additional work-load from LEAP project.

 Synapse has access to resources including finances, which can be deployed for any additional ground work.

 Our team-lead is extremely passionate about establishing clear monitoring & evaluation. Since this topic is close to our heart, we are emotionally invested in the success of this project. 

Synapse is igniting passion for STEM, problem-solving and innovation in African children with fun robotics kits & engaging courses.

By 2050, Africa's youth population will explode to 1 billion. However, a lack of access to quality STEM education is hindering their employability, creating a future workforce unprepared for high-demand jobs. According to Africa Development Bank, only 12% of students graduate in STEM related degrees. This perpetuates poverty and limits economic growth throughout the continent. Moreover as new technologies emerge, the digital divide between the opportunities for children in developed nations and the global South is increasing.

 This wicked problem has  three-fold challenge

• Lack of access to Resources: A large number of schools lack electricity while most schools lack internet and devices or labs. Parents and schools lack funds to procure programs, content or lab equipment.
• Lack of motivation : The entire education ecosystem suffers from a lack of motivation due to low teacher compensation, limited career prospects for students, and a disconnect between education and future opportunities.
•  Lack of teacher capacity: An average teacher in Africa has no exposure/understanding of technology, paid too little ($70 per month)  and burdened with personal challenges to make any impact on students. 

Through its products and financially sustainable edupreneur model, Synapse aims to inspire children to pursue STEM education, build foundation for future learning (technology) and develop problem-solving & critical thinking skills.

Synapse has a systemic approach with two main aspects of solution:

• Robotics Kits & Engaging Courses: Synapse Robotics kit are affordable ($99 per kit for 15 children), can work without internet and do not need continuous power-supply. The learning content can be accessed in an offline manner.

The robotics kit and the coursework has been designed for age-appropriateness.  Children are exposed to robots and the underlying technology components (e,g, mechanical parts sensors, motors) and graphical programming software. Children engage in fun activity of constructing robots (e.g. pet robotic dog, mars-rover) and programming it. The activities are engaging have a mix of direct & indirect instruction set and have embedded low-floor high ceiling tasks.

Coursework: Synapse currently has a set of 5 courses that systematically exposes child with no understanding / exposure to digital technologies to building foundation for learning them and acquiring mastery.

The robotics kit along with coursework:

• Inspires children to pursue technology & STEM education
• Develop logic & computational thinking leading to improvement in STEM outcomes
• Develop problem-solving &  trouble-shooting and exploration
• Develop team working skills, empathy and collaboration

Edupreneur business model: Synapse is pioneering Edupreneur business model where we provide training, development and resources to teachers to make them Edupreneurs. Edupreneur teachers facilitate Synapse courses and get an opportunity to earn money. In addition to money, teachers are recognized for their efforts thus motivating them. 

We have completed following research so far:

Foundational Research for Situation Analysis: We visited 40 schools in Rwanda and 37 schools in Uganda to understanding the following components:

• Infrastructure in school: Availability of computers, power and internet
• Map teacher capabilities – exposure & use of technology
• Attitude of school principals and teachers towards STEM teaching and learning outcomes 

Feasibility Study for  Product Pricing

1. We interviewed 8 school principals from Rwanda and 12 from Uganda to understand the budget constraints and willingness to pay towards robotics kits and courses  
2. We interviewed 30 parents to understand their budget and willingness to pay for courses.

Formative Research: We conducted a study to examine product usability and investigate perceptions of students and teachers towards Synapse robotics kit and coursework.

Research questions:

• Are the robotics kits and the accompanying course-work activities age-appropriate in the given context?
• What is overall ‘emotion’ / ‘perception’ of children towards robotics kit and activities?
• What is the adequacy of the directions in the coursework activities? Is it sufficiently detailed?
• What could be challenges & barriers to adoption of robotics kit and coursework?
• Student participants: The study consisted of running a course for 40 children, in two batches across two schools – one from Rwanda and one from Uganda. Both the schools are run by trust / foundation and  are non-private. The students were in age group 9-10 years. Out of 40 children, 22 were boys while 18 were girls
• Teacher participants: 4 teachers, two from each school acted as observers. 

Data Gathering

We collected feedback through the following:

1. Observational data: We had observer present who made entries.
2. At the end of each, we collected students feedback in form of emotions and asked them to rate on 5 point like scale e.g. was the activity fun? Easy / difficult?
3. We asked children to share their emotions
4. We interviewed 10 randomly chosen children for their qualitative feedback on a structured + unstructured manner. 
5. We interviewed all 4 teacher observers structured + unstructured manner.  

Key Findings and Product Improvements:

• DIY and Engagement: Children enjoyed the DIY aspect, demonstrating intuitiveness and interest in the process. However, the initial joinery proved challenging, so we made changes for the final version.

• Programming Terminology: Some children found terms like "output" and "input" confusing. We addressed this by incorporating basic terminology instruction at the beginning of the curriculum.

• Integrated Development Environment (IDE): A few students struggled with the IDE. We've added curriculum modules that teach basic IDE functions.

• Block Programming: Children enjoyed block programming and were enthusiastic about trying different functions independently.

• Faster Results: We observed that children lose interest without quick results. To address this, we've integrated modules that teach each component (sensors and motors) as standalone devices, allowing them to see immediate results after programming.

• Aesthetics: Based on student feedback, we've made significant improvements to the product's aesthetics for the market-ready version.

Synapse Education is on a mission to equip African youth with the essential skills of the 21st century through its innovative robotics program. We firmly believe that STEM education, particularly hands-on learning with robotics, is a critical driver of Africa's economic and social progress. However, to truly revolutionize STEM education and achieve widespread adoption, we recognize the need to strengthen the evidence base of our solution.

Current Evidence Landscape:

We acknowledge that there is existing research highlighting the benefits of robotics education and computational thinking in schools. While research supports the value of robotics education, widespread implementation (and more so in African schools) remains limited. We also recognize potential resistance from parents towards integrating robotics into the curriculum.

To address these gaps and solidify the effectiveness of our program, Synapse seeks to conduct a thorough evaluation of our robotics kits and teaching approach. We aim to gather evidence around engagement, learning outcomes and development of skills - problem-solving, computational thinking, etc.

At Synapse, we have a strong focus on 'Scale' and we believe that only by investing into evidence base, we can scale our solution. We see a direct benefit of increasing our evidence base:

- Increased Adoption: Compelling data can convince educators, policymakers, and schools of the program's effectiveness, leading to wider implementation

- Addressing Parental Concerns: Evidence can demonstrate the program's positive impact on learning and alleviate potential parental reservations.

- Improved Program Design: Evaluation findings can inform continuous improvement of our robotics kits, curriculum, and teacher training.

- Scaling Up: A strong evidence base is crucial for attracting funding and partnerships necessary to scale the program and reach a larger number of students.

Why now is this the right time to engage in a LEAP project?

Synapse Robotics kit are in ‘pilot’ stage where we are actively engaging with learners, educators, policy-makers and our investors. We are also in the ‘Design & Development’ phase of our subsequent products.

For us, this is an ideal time to invest into research design and framework to strengthen our evidence base. By setting up clear and rigorous monitoring & evaluation mechanisms early on: 

• We can make course-corrections in our product design, curriculum and teacher training before we enter into growth phase
• We can keep our stakeholders informed about our progress and updates and build trust and transparency.
• We can incorporate the feedback to design our next products and programs.

In addition, the mechanisms we set now will establish a strong foundation for data collection and analysis. It will allow us to track long term impact on the student learning and their career paths. 

• How does participation in the Synapse Education robotics program impact student engagement, intrinsic motivation, and attitudes towards STEM subjects, in the context of sub-saharan African schools?
• Does participation of children from sub-sahara Africa in Synapse Education robotics program make measurable progress in developing problem-solving and computational thinking skills?
• How can we design robust framework with key performance metrics and indicators for our products & programs that can help us to gather evidence & feedback for long term impact? 

We understand that the LEAP is a 12 week project with limited time involvement by the fellows. To maximize the gain from LEAP, we expect outputs to be blue-print designs and processes that we can implement independently: 

Foundational Research:

1. Report on different studies and researches around use of robotics kits in STEM learning.
2. Theoretical framework for measurement of improvement in problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Formative Research outputs: 

1. Design of research for assessment of Synapse robotics kit on product usability.
2. Design of research for assessment of  pedagogical elements and curriculum contents.

Summative Research outputs:

1. Design of research study and frameworks for evidence measurement (efficiency and efficacy) of Synapse robotics kits.
2. Process to set up Monitoring & Evaluation mechanisms and tools for Synapse programs.

The output from the Foundational research report on different research studies of robotics kits so far will improve our understanding of efficiency and efficacy of different robotics kits in their context. We will incorporate this understanding to improve our product roadmap & curriculum design. We will be able to decide an approach to prioritize product features.

 With the Theoretical framework for measurement of improvement in problem-solving and critical thinking skills, we will articulate metrics and KPIs for presenting evidence.

 The formative and summative research outputs of LEAP sprint are designs. We plan to execute the designs to:

• Improve product design
• Improve curriculum
• Set up first level monitoring & evaluation mechanisms

We plan to collect evidence for efficiency and efficacy of Synapse products and programs.

Following the completion of the LEAP Project, we plan to establish internal processes and appoint auditor for monitoring & evaluation. 

We expect the long-term outcome of this project to be significantly improve the learning outcomes of STEM education in African schools and building of foundational learning for future of work skills for African children. We believe  this long-term outcomes will be as a result of the program helping us to:

1. Establish and communicate measurable metrices towards learning outcomes and motivations
2. Continuous improvement of present and future products
3. Continuous Improvement of pedagogical elements and curriculum tasks.