STEM Education in Botswana: Girls Getting Geeky

The purpose of this project was for participants to explore the following six key issues / areas suggested by Design Squad Global:

1. Help people stay healthy
2. Help people stay safe
3. Protect the environment
4. Improve our school
5. Make older people’s lives better
6. Make children’s lives better

Children brainstormed the key issues and were tasked with ranking the top 3 priorities. Once the priorities were identified the solutions started flowing. The children selected Help people stay healthy in their environment (designing a dustbin to help keep the environment clean).

During this session the participants focused on turning their dustbin design into a prototype. Participants discussed and assigned tasks on how they were going to begin building their prototype with the materials they were supplied.

Participants successfully worked in groups, coordinating their efforts and clearly communicating to reach their goal.

Tactics such as using duct tape to secure the plastic and ensure it will not break were used. The child explained, “We are adding extra sticky tape to make sure that it is strong and so that it will not break” said one of the participants.

They further explained that they used a plastic inside stating, “We have put a black garbage bag inside to test if it would fit. When the bag becomes full it can be emptied in the big dustbins outside”

The children’s satisfaction at the end was healthy, “We are very happy with our dustbin. We think it will work because we designed it well and built it well.”

• Dustbin Creation Photos (DOCX)

Building the Emergency Shelter Prototype

Defining the need: The purpose of this session was to design an emergency shelter prototype.

Emergency Shelter Prototype: During this session, the participants focused on strengthening their understanding of the design process by focusing on the brainstorming and design steps. The participants discovered which architectural shapes (triangles, squares etc.) make the strongest building blocks. Participants were tasked with designing an Emergency Shelter prototype. A prototype is a quick and simple model that lets engineers and inventors test whether their ideas work.

“We think this will be a strong shelter because we have used a triangle shape and added a base”

Emergency Shelter Life-Size Challenge This session focused on the participants’ ability to take a prototype, visualize and build a life-size version. Participants worked as one group to build a life-size emergency shelter using different methodologies. Participants used their prototypes as a guide to model and plan the construction of their life-size emergency shelter. During the session participants’ understanding of the importance of building a prototype became increasingly obvious and they were pleased in the time invested during the prototype phase. Their understanding of the strongest structural shapes was also heightened as they undertook building the emergency shelter. Participants then tested the design by seeing how many of them could fit inside the shelter. They also noticed the strength of their walls and made adjustments / corrections to their design (using additional tape to strengthen walls and close gaps

• Designing and Building Prototype (PDF)