Students on either side of the world will be given the opportunity to learn, together, how to use one of the most exciting technologies of the day. In conjunction with a non-profit that teaches STEM classes in the United States, while performing humanitarian outreach in developing countries, the MakerBot store in Greenwich, Connecticut will host a unique series of lessons for both US students and students in Uganda.
Level Up Village believes that one important way to get young people engaged in the learning process is by tying the classroom to a larger humanitarian effort. For that reason, the organization will teach classes to local Connecticut students that are simultaneously broadcast to other parts of the world. Partnering up with MakerBot, Level Up Village will be using their educational approach to teach 3D printing to groups of five local 4th and 5th graders and students at Gayaza High School in Uganda about 3D printing. Of course, it does no good to broadcast a lesson to a school without a 3D printer, so MakerBot has graciously donated a Replicator 2 to Gayaza High.
Gayaza High School itself has an interesting story. The all girls school trains young adults to be empowered members of the community, mentoring the younger generations at a nearby primary school. The Level Up site explains that “the school exposes their students to community challenges while at school, thus preparing these young women to understand the rights of the people they will lead in future.” Gayaza students, then, learn to improve their communities by performing deeds such as the “Feed the child project”, in which they provide porridge to students at the primary school once a week.
For the MakerBot courses, which total eight classes per session, the students will be recording videos detailing the lack of electrical infrastructure in their region. Then, both sets of students in the US and in Uganda will construct battery-powered reading lights with 3D printed cases. The course will serve to not only provide students with a great set of STEM skills, but tie those skills to larger global problems. Moreover, by connecting students from diverse parts of the world, Level Up teaches them that global problems involve every human on Earth, that we’re all interdependent, and that modern tools, like the Internet and digital fabrication, can be used to address those issues.
Growing up, I would have loved classes like this. My parents constantly ingrained the fact that my comfortable life was the result of historical happenstance, that I was truly lucky and should always keep in mind the fact that things aren’t so great for everyone everywhere. The problem back then was that there wasn’t much I could do about it. With new technology, however, it’s become possible for even the youngest of innovators to work to tackle global inequality.
Source: MakerBot
