STEM FOR KIDS
Kings and queens of Kibera in partnership with Code with Kids recently launched a STEM programme ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) project for kids at the centre.
The aim for this project is to empower the children with the skills they need to support their future careers.
STEM education encourages critical thinking and promotes development of problem solving skills in children, builds confidence in children as the child uses their own capabilities to get the work done, promotes teamwork and prepares children for future technological advancement.
According to statistics there will be 3.5 million jobs in STEM-related areas of science that will need to be filled by 2025. This shows that coding is an in-demand skill across all industries since the world is changing and is focusing on technology from the phones we use, our transportation system, how marketing is done and to the way we farm. We can’t deny the fact that technology is improving and everything we do is changing towards a digital era.
Our biggest achievement in 2021 was hosting the annual celebration of the international day of the girl children the theme being (Digital generation, our generation)we were able to partner with other local organizations by bringing together girls from different parts of Kibra to be part of the STEM day where they were part of the coding classes at our center. ( photos attached )
The children on the other hand have been able to carry out science projects and are currently working on coding programs such as TYNKER and SCRATCH junior where they are taking individual projects on coding and programming that they have taken up well and the entire team have been awarded certificates for their hour of code projects where they learned conditional statements, loops, variables,creative problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Our next step in the coding class is to introduce them to different programming languages such as Java, Java Script, Python, and those are just some of the languages.
“Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.”