The GH4STEM campaign brings education stakeholders together across sectors to demystify the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The ultimate goal is to make practical STEM teaching and learning the norm at all education levels in Ghana using the Junior Experimenters of science (JUNEOS) and the Senior Experimenters of Science (SENEOS) challenge.
As the Voice of the GH4STEM campaign Naa Ashorkor champions the importance and relevance of practical STEM education for our world today. She believes that “when students are introduced to practical STEM, it helps them develop critical thinking, innovation and problem-solving skills. I have a platform. I have the voice, literally to help push this campaign and this message far. And I am happy to use it.”
The JUNEOS and SENEOS Challenges, drive the objectives of our STEM campaign for junior and senior high students. They are experiment-based national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) challenge designed to get teachers and students thinking differently about how to teach and learn STEM. A student-led science challenge that integrate video, storytelling and practical, innovative applications of STEM theories to produce high-quality educational content for teachers and students.
Based on a national curriculum, both the JUNEOS and SENEOS Challenges draw out key skills that students can apply throughout their lives including critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration where students use basic things in the environment to create science experiments to explain otherwise complicated science phenome. The founder of WeGo Innovate, Charles Selorm Agbemashior believes that “critical thinking, creativity and innovation are invaluable skills that students must begin developing in Junior and Senior High schools (JHS & SHS) if they are going to succeed in the 21st century workforce. Practical STEM education can give the students these valuable skills over the 6 years they spend in JHS and SHS.”
Dr Thomas Tagoe, the Co-Founder of Ghscientific, one of the partnering institutions, asserts that “it is important that when students switch on the TV, they see people they can identify with who are doing amazing things. This builds confidence and identity in a very strong way.” Rev. Thomas K. Arboh, Past President GAST (Ghana Association of Science Teachers) reiterates that “National transformation depends on innovators and JUNEOS Challenge will ignite innovation skills among pupils.”
Dr Peter Asare-Nuamah, a representative from the Ghana STEM Network and the Former Ghana Ambassador for the Next Einstein Forum states that GH4STEM “provides a great opportunity for children from unreached communities in Ghana to showcase their talents and creativity in applying scientific theories and concepts taught in resources-constrained environment, to address the problems of society.”
The GH4STEM campaign is here to stay and aims to combine practical STEM experiments with real-life application of scientific theory while overcoming resource challenges and create powerful learning environments that make STEM lessons fun and accessible. Both the JUNEOS and SENEOS Challenges will be aired on national television and aim at drawing out key skills that students can apply throughout their lives.