Organizing STEAM camps in Burkina Faso and Ghana

During the summer break of 2016, I was excited to be in Burkina Faso and Ghana as part of a team organizing educational camps for high school and elementary school students. It was called the Africa Mission, an annual outreach trip to parts of the African continent, giving SUNY Korea students opportunities to volunteer and be part of global projects. I was fortunate enough to serve as a student project coordinator for the educational component of our trip. This gave me the perfect opportunity to organize a STEAM camp, exploring my interests in alternative education.

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) is an interdisciplinary approach to learning using principles from the aforementioned domains to guide student inquiry. With two STEAM projects in hand, we visited three schools and organized the project for over 100 students. The first project involved creating a model of the Solar System, and the second was to make a rubber-band powered car.

What worked well?

Engaging projects: Both projects were engaging for most of the students and teachers. Many of the students were visibly excited to be in the classroom. The projects also tied very well into class lessons even though this hadn’t been confirmed beforehand (It is recommended that you match projects with class lessons) so students were already familiar with the theoretical component of the project.

Team-based collaborations: All students were recommended to work in groups that teachers had helped set up. Students were already comfortable with their friends and able to focus on the projects. Our second project also had a team-based race at the end which was overwhelmingly engaging. There were prizes for our all-girl winning team.

Adequate materials: Materials were enough for students to actively participate in the projects. Prior to the visit, we had contacted the schools and requested estimates for student numbers. Even when students unexpectedly showed up, which happened twice, we had materials for them to work with.

Training and team preparation: The student project team was trained by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity through a workshop coordinated by a teacher who regularly incorporates STEAM projects in the classroom. Seeing it in action and experiencing a STEAM project from the student’s perspective would prove very helpful when we enacted our projects.

What was a challenge?

Language: The predominant language for our students was French. Even though we had a French-speaking team member, it was tough to have him translate vital pieces of information while we worked individually with teams during the project. Anticipate any language barriers and plan accordingly.

Managing time for projects: Our second project was extremely engaging for the students. However, this excitement prolonged the project and dragged it well beyond the time we had planned for it. As a rule of thumb, consider sliding in some latency while you plan. You never know who might be having too much fun.

Classroom management: Some of the teachers we met had never incorporated projects in their classrooms. Classroom management techniques before, during, and after projects are very different, but not all the teachers were aware of this. Making time to interact with teachers and explaining appropriate classroom management techniques to employ is very vital to the success of the entire learning experience.

Conclusion

I will always remember the group of students who asked us to come back the following year with even more exciting projects. The teachers expressed their interest in learning how to incorporate interesting projects into their teaching, and this strongly influenced my undergraduate research project. Parents were also around to catch a glimpse of what their children were doing in the classroom. It was truly a remarkable experience for me and the entire team.