The 2021 IEEE Pre-University STEM Portal Grant recipients have successfully completed their programs! These programs helped to increase the opportunity for STEM education for Pre-University students beyond just classroom and textbook learning. The following 17 programs are each highlighted below. Continue reading to learn more about them and be sure to click on the TryEngineering program spotlight link for each!
Imvepi Refugee Settlement Camp IEEE Pre-University Teacher 2021 Workshop
IEEE Uganda Section, R8
The main goals of the Imvepi Refugee Settlement Camp IEEE Pre-University Teacher 2021 Workshop are: build strong foundations for STEM literacy among the teachers/schools in refugee camp; increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and collaborative learning in STEM; prepare the teachers and their learners to be behind STEM workforce for the future; promote IEEE and IEEE education Activities Board and its components like Teacher In-service Program, Online learning platforms such as TryEngineering, REACH etc. The objectives of the program are:
1) Develop collaborative relationships with local pre-educators;
2) Increase the levels of technological literacy among pre-educators and in camp;
3) Contribute to the establishment and sustenance of engineering programs;
4) Facilitate enhancements and adaptations, in school science and technology curricula; and
5) Promote applied, inquiry-based learning skills pertaining to engineering, science and technology.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Imvepi Refugee Settlement Camp!
Enhancing the Participation of Girls of Bule Hora in STEM Courses of Bule Hora University
IEEE Student Branch, Bule Hora University, Bule Hora, R8
Enhancing the Participation of Girls of Bule Hora in STEM Courses of Bule Hora University is intended for enhancing the participation of local girls of Bule Hora town in the STEM courses of the university. Right now, there is no girl student of Bule Hora town in the STEM programs of Bule Hora University. All the girl students in the STEM programs of the university are from other parts of Ethiopia. Through our IEEE student branch we want to start a pre-university program in the local high schools of Bule Hora to address these issues and to motivate the local high school girls for the STEM programs. In this program our focus is to explain the girl students the benefits of STEM in the real world. Our aim is to motivate the girl students of the local high schools to participate in the STEM programs of Bule Hora University when they finish their high school. We want to provide them all the basic ideas regrading the STEM education and the advantages they will get after finishing their STEM education in the university. We also want to show some of the direct benefits of STEM education in the day to day lives.
IEEE Epoxy Solar Camp
IEEE Student Branch, PCET’s Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering & Research, Ravet, R10
Students being the future inhabitants of the country need to be sensitized about climate change. When the hands-on experience is combined with the lessons of sustainability and solar energy, then the awareness begins at a tender age, which stays with them lifelong. IEEE Epoxy Solar Camp is one such initiative that gives not only the fun of making a solar panel themselves with but also a great learning experience for solar energy and sustainability. This kind of workshop can transform any small space at school, company or institute into a production unit with minimal investment. It gives on the real feel of not only experience the solar energy but also a sense of achievement to the students in making their own solar panels. Solar energy is the renewable energy also known as clean energy, this kind of energy improves the health and environmental conditions. If the students get the knowledge about solar energy, they can apply this kind of technology for their own houses and they can reduce the electricity bill and save the energy for future generation also. There are several advantages of solar energy like zero carbon emissions, clean air, cheaper electricity etc. With this kind of workshop not only the students aged 14-18 will be trained, the same students can train the other students to spread the awareness about renewable energy and its advantages for the future generation.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on IEEE Epoxy Solar Camp!
Eu-Reka 2021
IEEE Pune Section, R10
The focus of Eu-Reka 2021 is to “lend a hand to raise the education ‘Reka’ of the country” (Reka in many Indian languages means a line). Eu-Reka symbolizes raising the National STEM literacy ‘reka’ / level. The event proposes to use the following approaches:
a) Create curiosity and interest in STEM for high school children and motivate them to take up higher education in STEM.
b) Provide exposure to front-line STEM technologies that can be useful for the school children to plan their future life
c) Encourage rural school children including girl students to take up higher studies in STEM.
d) Work towards reduction of dropout rate at high school level by addressing the benefits of higher education in STEM.
e) Increase the Confidence, Self-esteem and Aspirational level of high school girl students to enable them to take decisions for themselves in respect of higher education.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Eu-Reka!
IEEE Hong Kong STEM Student Conference
Hong Kong Section, R10
In the era of global uncertainty, people have to solve both complex local and international issues. Therefore, global citizens with STEM research and development skills are in huge demand today. There is a need of helping students to develop these skills and attitudes in an integrative and experiential manner. However, standardized K12 (secondary school) curriculum is challenging for students to self-initiate a STEM research project as these are often not available at local schools. The Hong Kong Section (HK) is excited to offer a student conference to pre-university students. The IEEE Hong Kong STEM Student Conference consists of series of pre-conference tutorial workshops and ongoing research support. The program (including a series of workshops and research support) is for Pre-University students (Ages 14 – Ages 18). We expect there will be 50 participants from secondary schools in this cohort (2021). The program provides a novel way to apply personalized learning, self-directed/self-regulated learning, and teacher-student mentoring. We believe the program can be even more effective in cultivating global citizens through aligning TryEngineering with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and 3-A (Affective, Action, Academic) global competency framework proposed by Prof. Fernando M. Reimers from Harvard University. Educational outcomes are also specified for raising awareness of STEM and advocating their inclusion in STEM education.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on IEEE Hong Kong STEM Student Conference!
Kenya STEM Camp 2021
IEEE Kenya Section Affinity Group, YP, R8
Despite Kenya being a rapidly developing and industrializing nation that needs to bridge its skills gap for 21st-century skills, it has been noted with concern that only 22% of students undertaking university education pursue courses in STEM. This is based on recent research by CEMASTEA 2017. To help mitigate this, the IEEE Young Professionals Kenya Section seeks to collaborate with the award-winning Kenyan EdTech organization Angaza Elimu to implement the Kenya STEM Camp 2021, a hybrid camp for students and their teachers. The key focus is to expose the students to STEM playfully, inspiring them to solve real-world problems as they learn while also involving their teachers. Our curriculum borrows from Lifelong Kindergarten’s creative learning cycle (Imagine -> Create -> Play -> Share -> Reflect -> Imagine). This is where students imagine what they want to do, create a project based on their ideas, play with their creations, share their ideas and creations with others, reflect on their experiences – all of which lead them to imagine new ideas and new projects. (Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Lab).
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Kenya STEM Camp 2021!
Ottawa Robotics Competition Supervisor Training Program
IEEE Ottawa Section, R7
For the past 19 years, the IEEE Ottawa Robotics Competition (ORC) has been Ottawa’s largest volunteer-run robotics competition for grade 5 to 12 students with over 600 attendees. Because ORC is the only volunteer-run robotics competition in Ottawa, the ORC can uniquely offer a low-cost and beginner-friendly competition for Ottawa’s youth that provides an entry-point into the world of programming and engineering. ORC primarily utilizes the Lego Mindstorms robotics kits. Competitors purchase their own kits, but ORC will subsidize economically disadvantaged teams as the need arises. Our proposal aims to run a supervisor training program that will provide resources and support for prospective teams so they may participate virtually in the robotics competition. We anticipate this program will prevent students from missing out on a great STEM experience because of the pandemic.
Pre-University Student Workshop and Competition on Embedded Systems 2021 (EMBED’21)
IEEE Nigeria Section, Technical Chapter, R8
Pre-University Student Workshop and Competition on Embedded Systems 2021 (EMBED’21) is being organized by the IoT-Edge Computing Research group of the Department of Software Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri in collaboration with the IEEE Computer Society – Nigeria Section Chapter, C16. The proposed program will feature a workshop and competition event for pre-university students and teachers. The event is planned to hold in two days, October 7th and 8th 2021. The program is planned to take place in the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo Sate (located in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria). Notably, the IEEE Day celebration for 2021 will take place as part of this event. This will help in creating more awareness in our university. It is expected that the membership of our Student Branch will increase through this awareness. IEEE volunteers will be facilitators of the program. The expected participants are students and teachers from pre-university schools. Between 50 to 100 students and teachers are expected to participate in the program. Through the program, students will get the opportunity to be exposed on basic electro-technological skills in embedded systems development and prototyping. For the teachers, the event will serve as a Teacher-In Service program (TISP).
Project Vidhya
IEEE Madras Young Professionals, R10“
Project Vidhya aims to provide an introduction about STEM to the students and by giving them hands-on experience, it also focuses on increasing their curiosity towards the STEM field in their upcoming classes. The program is a combination of introduction of STEM, hands-on experience in creating small projects, interacting with professionals from the STEM field and creating an awareness about the importance and opportunities about the STEM field virtually. The students from age 5-10 possess a great curiosity level to know the different things around them and we think it is the most suitable time to introduce STEM, which can enhance their critical thinking and creativity level. The program also aims at developing their communication skills and teamwork skills by working with their peers and by explaining their project to the audience. The program will be conducted by a series of workshops of 10 weeks (i.e. 10 Saturdays) from July to September.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Project Vidhya!
Promoting Out-of-School STEM Learning at Home
IEEE Uganda Section, R8
Promoting Out-of-School STEM Learning at Home proposed program seeks to establish an out-of-school STEM learning program in Uganda that will engage pre-university students and their parents. With students and parents spending more time together during lock-downs to fight the pandemic, the program will use this as an opportunity to promote the use of IEEE STEM resources as educational materials for the parents to engage with and educate their children. The proposed activity is a program to raise awareness of IEEE pre-university educational resources amongst parents in Uganda, support the parents to conduct STEM activities with their children at home and to ignite the curiosity in Science and Engineering amongst participating pre-university learners. In the program, IEEE volunteers will hold online STEM sessions, which the parents will be able to join and support their children to conduct the hands-on activities at home. The parents and children will use low-cost STEM-kits for lesson plans selected by the volunteers. The kits will be prepared and delivered to participating households to enable them conduct the hands-on activities in the lesson plans.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Promoting Out-of-School STEM Learning at Home!
Roboteam STEM Experience
IEEE Women in Engineering Argentina, R9
Roboteam STEM Experience is an initiative carried out by volunteers from IEEE Women in Engineering Argentina affinity group, with the purpose of encouraging scientific-technological vocations in children and adolescents through free workshops where they experiment and learn about STEM disciplines, electricity, electronics, energy, programming and robotics. Through our activities we promote socio-economic integration and gender diversity to reduce the digital divide. With the objective to support the educational and emotional crisis of this underserved population, we created this program “Roboteam Experiencia STEM” which has the 1st & Summer Edition during January-February-March, with the participation of 45 kids (23 girls & 22 boys) from all over the country. In this case, will present a 2nd & Winter Edition of the free STEM Virtual BootCamp called “Roboteam Experiencia STEM” that seeks to encourage scientific-technological vocations in children, using concepts of electricity, electronics and energy, programming and robotics, playful exercises and motivational “soft skills” development activities. With these tools & knowledge, the kids will develop Projects to provide Solutions for Social Problems into their communities, with a technological approach.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Roboteam STEM Experience!
Robotic Science Tanks for Middle Level Education Students (RST-BAQ)
IEEE Student Branch, Politécnico de la Costa Atlántica, R9
The Politecnico de la Costa Atlantica Student Branch (IEEE-PCA, STB99095) has been supporting for 2 years the initiative “Seeds for Innovation”, it offers a workshops series to middle-level education students in the last year course that live in Barranquilla, Colombia. These workshops include training about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) oriented research. In pandemic conditions generated by COVID19, the training was virtually conducted with about 100 assistance students. The IEEE-PCA Student Branch seeks to scale the current initiative and create the RST-BAQ Workshop (Robotic Science Tanks for middle-level education students) by the resources of this grant. This will consist of practical workshops series aimed at developing skills in robotics, for students and teachers of the Luis Sánchez Porto Educational Institution, and the Center for Education and Rehabilitation of Hearing and Language – CERAL that attends students with Asperger syndrome. The RST-BAQ Workshop seeks to inspire teachers and high school students of last years (9°, 10°, and 11° grades, namely middle-level education at Colombia) to propose solutions to city problems driven by the implementation of robotic prototypes, and science and engineering applications. In the Workshop, we will develop learning spaces and the co-creation of solutions. The workshop will benefit students between 14 and 18 years old, who are in the last years of high school. Also, students with autism spectrum disorders.
Rural Student Technical Enhancement Program (RSTEP)
IEEE Education Society Kerala Chapter, R10
The Rural Student Technical Enhancement Program (R-STEP) program proposal is to give training sessions, including hands-on workshops to students and to give them a general idea about engineering and its various disciplines. The program is intended for the higher secondary students or teachers, mainly in the rural outskirts of various districts of Kerala where the students have a comparatively lesser opportunity for technical knowledge. In the program, students are the beneficiaries and they are allowed to know more about the upcoming technologies and hands-on sessions of these technologies during this novel COVID-19 Pandemic. With this course, they get a professional training session from experts in subjects like Robotics & IoT, Competitive Coding, Web Solutions. The student will be selected from the associated school in rural areas, based on their interest as the selection criteria. Each selected student can opt for their domain in which they will be provided with a STEM training Kit and resources. The program will have inspiring nontechnical sessions from industry experts along with the technical sessions so that the students have connections and knowledge at the industry level which would surely benefit their future.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Rural Student Technical Enhancement Program (RSTEP)!
IEEE Ecuador STEM Camps
IEEE Ecuador Section, R9
IEEE Ecuador proposes the IEEE Ecuador STEM Camps Project, as an alternative to increase the interest in engineering and technology of girls and boys from communities in Ecuador. The resource used to meet the objectives of our project are STEM workshops, aimed at girls and boys between 10 and 15 years old. The STEM Camps Ecuador program in its 2021 edition, aims to implement 10 STEM workshops, aimed at 150 children and 15 teachers. Each workshop will have a duration of 10 hours of virtual content and uses the Engineering Design Process (EDP) as a methodology. The workshops are organized and run by IEEE volunteers, both students and professionals and will run between August and November. The main activities that the participants will carry out are: Participate in practical design challenges through robotics, science and energy workshops; Experience and observe science and technology work first-hand through tours with real-life engineers; Participate in technical visits (online); and Participant in STEM mentoring programs with professionals in the area.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on IEEE Ecuador STEM Camps!
STEM Visits IEEESTEC Conference
IEEE Serbia and Montenegro Section, Technical Chapter, R9
During four years of high school education in Serbia, especially in grammar school, students grasp thousands of definitions, formulas, but the level of their practical knowledge and skills is low. Even highly motivated high school students that put greater effort often do not acquire results corresponding to their expectations. In grammar schools, educational progress is oriented to the traditional educational approach (lectures and problem-solving sessions). With our Pre-University STEM program, through interactive workshops and final competition, students learn to work in a team, exchange ideas, learn to quickly identify and solve a problem and contribute to the final result – the practical implementation of the project. The STEM Visits IEEESTEC Conference program will be realized in cooperation with the local STEM institutions (University of Nis, Faculty of Electronic Engineering (FEE-UNI), The Center for the Promotion of Science (CPS), Science clubs in Nis and Leskovac). Interactive workshops will be organized on two levels: basic and advanced courses. The beginner’s course will cover the practical application of electronic devices with the use of laboratory measuring equipment, where the principle of project-based learning will be applied (Appendix 2). The advanced course will include the application of the Arduino development kit for the implementation of IoT projects.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on STEM Visits IEEESTEC Conference!
Understanding Flying Objects (UFO) Physics of Flight
IEEE Binghamton Section, R1
Understanding Flying Objects (UFO) Physics of Flight is a full-day outdoor hands-on educational course suitable for summer camps, after school programs, science parks, scout groups, and other outdoor learning environments. In this course, students learn the physics behind flying objects and see them in application. The practical exercises use flying discs as tools to allow students to experiment and explore the physics principles. They learn to adjust flight environments and launch parameters to affect flight. Additionally, students learn the structured sport of disc golf and play a short game. The course is suitable for K-12 students, as the exercises are scalable to age-appropriate difficulty levels. Participants learn theoretical concepts then apply them in practical exercises while engaging in competitive activities. Students develop the technical skills of understanding projectile motion in physics for various objects. They develop group work skills as all of the hands-on activities are performed in small groups. They learn interpersonal skills and courtesies of friendly competition as they compete together in a disc golf event. They learn how products are designed and how they can apply engineering skills in a career. The event will be hosted by the Kopernik Observatory (www.kopernik.org) as a STEM program for the local community. Our intent is to enable Kopernik to reuse this curriculum for future STEM Camp events.
Check out this post-event program spotlight on Understanding Flying Objects (UFO) Physics of Flight!
STEM-Ed (STEM Education)
IEEE PES Kerala Chapter, R10
STEM-Ed (STEM Education) is a three-month-long mentoring project presentation program focused on school students and teachers intending to help the children develop their skill sets in STEM. ‘STEM-Ed’ provides students with a well-rounded foundation of skills to help them nurture their future in STEM related domains. With the increasing importance of STEM in our society and the continued growth of STEM-related occupations, children from all backgrounds must have opportunities to build STEM culture. It also helps the children to develop critical thinking skills and instills a passion for innovation. The program involves teachers & students of eighth, ninth, and tenth grades collaborating to learn, develop and implement the STEM academic disciplines. The program embodies several stages starting from basic learning sessions to a fully equipped hackathon. Registration will be opened for the teachers where they can apply as a team along with their students. Teachers here will act as mentors for their respective teams. Teams are then sorted and selected as per their applications and are then given access to the next level. In the next level, the selected teams will be provided with orientation and mentoring sessions based on STEM and help them familiarize themselves with various aspects of the same. Special training will be provided to the teachers to mentor their teams in achieving the goals of the program. Students will be given training workshops based on their preferred domains which include: Basic electronics, basic coding, various smart systems, etc. which will be taught by experts, from the grassroots level. Workshops are followed by training sessions on Project Development and Implementation thereby enlightening the students about the procedures and guidelines to be considered while developing a project. Thereafter, a Hackathon will be hosted and the responses received will be screened and selected for the Project Proposal submission based on their preferred domain.