STEM Guyana, the organization which dramatically raised the country’s technology profile by fielding teams that distinguished themselves at prestigious international robotics competitions in Washington and the United Arab Emirates, earlier this week told the Stabroek Business that it is preparing to distribute nearly 1000 lessons plans to parents & vulnerable students across the country.
This is part of what STEM Guyana Chief Executive Officer Karen Abrams says is a gesture designed to provide official support for efforts to seek to ensure effective continuity to the education delivery in Guyana, the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic notwithstanding.
The launch will be effected during the week of February 20th, Abrams told Stabroek Business.
“The STEMGuyana leadership team has decided to directly alleviate one source of pandemic stress for Guyanese parents by investing in the development of nearly 1000 lesson plans covering Mathematics, Science and English, from Grades I to Ten, Abrams told Stabroek Business. She said that the Lessons Plans “references the worksheets being provided by the Ministry of Education.”
In a telephone interview with the Stabroek Business on Wednesday Abrams said that over the past four months STEM Guyana had been working with counterparts to prepare Lessons Plans integrated with Scratch and Arduino coding technology. She said that a representative sampling of the lessons plans had been reviewed by curriculum specialists and teachers and that the finished products are targeted at STEM club leaders and parents. The goal, she said, is to “help parents to better understand and explain concepts to their children.”
Abrams says that the lessons plans which will be delivered “via web and mobile app” will track and reward student performances with points which students will be able to use to acquire school supplies.” The lesson plans, she said, are part of a larger national programme being sponsored by ExxonMobil and Tullow Oil” and are designed to support soon to be launched “lessons pod programmes” across nine of the country’s ten administrative regions via web or mobile app or on flash drive. These can be viewed via television or computers. STEM Guyana, Abrams says, also plans to conduct weekly Zoom classes for parents to help them “navigate the app and reinforce the concepts with their children.
Abrams told Stabroek Business that STEM Guyana had recently analyzed results of an online survey administered to 328 parents who were “part of a weighted sample reflecting regional populations in all ten (10) of the country’s administrative regions.” She said that, worryingly, 66% of the parents interviewed had responses ranging from “not very well,” to “completely stressed.”
“We found that the pandemic has caused parents to have to play the roles of both parent and teacher while dealing with reduced incomes, poor or expensive internet service, uncooperative children, lack of access to computers or tablets, and a general lack of ability to guide their children through worksheets,” Abrams said.
The lesson plans created by STEMGuyana will be made available free of charge and the goal is to help place in the control of parents a tool which directly provides explanations and which references the worksheets provided by the Ministry of Education. Abrams said that while the lessons’ plan learning tools are designed specifically for the soon to be launched learning pods program for vulnerable children, they will, nonetheless, be made available to all parents, since 100% of the parents who responded to the STEMGuyana parent survey requested convenient access to the lesson plans.
