STEM Education in Botswana: Girls Getting Geeky

Our beneficiaries across the country face a daily crisis in trying to collect anything that can act as fuel. Many of them don’t have access to electricity and some walk many kilometres just to collect wood or don’t have the money to buy gas for a standard oven.

In this activity our in-school participants learned about solar energy and how it can solve some of the household problems they have. A solar oven can give them the ability to cook food, using the sun’s natural heat. Part of the materials used during this activity were recycled from the participants’ homes like small boxes painted black inside, which they used to trap some of the sun's energy to make the air inside the box hotter than the air outside the box. They also used aluminium foil to direct the sun into the box. Other materials included cling wrap, scissors and tape.

To test the oven design, it was placed in the direct sun when the outdoor temperature was at least 28 degrees Celsius. To see if the design was a success, it had to melt marshmallows and chocolate to make s’mores. After 30 minutes results were achieved, and the food items had melted. The children had a s’more party!

After this activity, during a focus group the participants shared that this is an innovation that they will be sharing with their family members to not only save money for electricity and firewood but to promote going green for a healthier and safe environment.

Solving puzzles is a fun activity to do with the participants, it stimulates their brain to think critically. However, as time goes on, puzzles tend to wear out or lose other pieces and this makes the activity difficult and less interesting.If we throw puzzle pieces into the trash, then it adds to the mounting garbage problem.

SSI participants decided to create anew the puzzle pieces and “upcycle” them, making their useful life longer.  The children designed fun activities and are projects to revive the old puzzle pieces.  

We collected varying sizes of puzzle pieces, planned how to use them and began the creation process. The participants created coasters with the big sized puzzles and wrote motivating messages on them that read “you are the perfect piece of SSI” for staff members. This made our staff members feel special and appreciated by their beneficiaries.

They also created accessories using the puzzles, these included necklaces and bracelets. These were not just normal accessories they were designed to symbolise special bonds between friends. They used small pieces of jigsaw puzzles that became connectors or pendants for their necklaces and bracelets.

These new creative ideas assisted the participants to think differently on recycling and realising that old things which most people throw away can be made new with some creativity. Some items can recreate beautiful and special objects for people.