Erandi Aprende

Mexico is experiencing the first effects of the fourth industrial revolution. Overall, 71% of the population has access to the internet and some form of education. Yet, 40% of employers cannot find candidates with the necessary skills. Technology and science represent the future of work but in Mexico only 17% of people working in these areas are women.

We must therefore take advantage of education moving online in order to foster economic prosperity and community progress, and to support one of the most vulnerable groups in the social pyramid, women and girls.

Erandi Aprende is an online e-learning platform that encompasses the ability to trigger girls’ passion (without leaving boys behind) and involvement in STEM areas by providing resources that promote inspirational and quality education. Our aim is to ensure that ultimately there are more women in STEM.

There are 3.25 billion girls under 25 years old worldwide. Although STEM industries represent the careers of the future, less than 30% of these girls will engage in a STEM related subject.

In Mexico, there are 25 million girls under the age of 25. 18.9 million of them still do not have access to STEM education. Even those that do have access are unlikely to choose a career in STEM due to academic deficiencies, a lack of knowledge of the prospects and opportunities available and conditioning of gender roles. Rural and peri-urban areas are generally the most affected by lack of resources and opportunities.

Similarly, only 48.3 percent of the global female population has internet access which in turn means that women and girls are falling more and more behind in school compared to their male counterparts. 

Therefore, we should prioritize remote access and providing a first encounter with STEM to all girls and young women. This will reduce the gender gap in the field and empower the girls to have a bright future whilst they are still learning from home.

Erandi Aprende is an online remote platform designed as a gamified environment which offers STEM education to girls and women (without leaving boys behind). With the help of courses, tools, and resources focused on awakening an interest in science and technology from an early age, Erandi Aprende bridges the STEM gender gap alongside providing online materials for teachers, parents and tutors whilst children are studying from home. 

Erandi Aprende's aim is to teach science and technology subjects in a fun and innovative way, and to allow children to imagine themselves as future scientists and tech enthusiasts by inviting them to solve problems in their community using STEM subjects. This aim is ensured by tailoring STEM education through our avatar and AI Erandi which show content that adapts to the hobbies and interests of the individual student. We want to establish quality learning in science and technology in order to provide education outside of regular school and classroom settings, as well as bridging the STEM gender gap by inviting more girls into these fields without leaving boys behind and thus, avoid reproducing segregation methodologies.

Our current customers are parents, tutors and relatives of children aged 8-12 years old based in Mexico City and its metropolitan area, as well as other cities in the country such as Tlaxcala, Queretaro and Pachuca.  Our users and beneficiaries are children aged 8-12 years old based in Mexico City and its metropolitan area, as well as some other cities in the country such as Tlaxcala, Queretaro and Pachuca. We have also attracted a student from Ecuador and another one from Peru.

Currently, these groups are underserved since most science and technology educational content is only available in English, thus, making it inaccessible for those who do not speak the English language. In Mexico only 12% of the entire population can speak English. 

Through a series of surveys and interviews, we discovered that the main drivers behind women's lack of participation in STEM are systemic gender biases which make girls choose not to study science and technology careers. In addition, many potential clients stated that most material available online was in English and still very abstract and they did not see any added value in being part of the STEM world.  

By being able to build connections between science and technology subjects, users’ hobbies, and everyday activities, we can help our users develop self-guided learning abilities, a passion for STEM, and help them to clarify any doubts they might have from class. Furthermore, by allowing users to discover all the future possibilities they have by pursuing these careers, we can contribute towards triggering higher participation in these fields.  

Our problem, solution and target population align with the challenge since our remote educational platform allows girls from all backgrounds to gain access to STEM education at a reduced cost from home, while fostering their engagement, passion and interest in these fields. We do this by using different learning methodologies and by connecting everyday activities with science and technology. Thus, making independent learning fun and engaging, while children are studying from home. 

We selected this stage of development since as we mentioned beforehand, we have tested the product in certain areas of the country and have received good feedback. However, we are still trying to understand which business model and revenue stream will work best for the social enterprise and expand our client portfolio in order to create a stable cash flow. 

We are creating a learning model (called learn, build, invent) which invites children (with a special focus on girls) to learn theoretical concepts and put them into practice right away, before later inviting them to create machines or find solutions to problems they might have in their community. We aim to incentivize developing skills beyond regular STEM courses and also to develop abilities such as design thinking whilst exploring creative skills. Since our content is directly linked with the interests of each user, we avoid creating common discrimination patterns regarding the gender of an individual. 

 Moreover, we are starting a set of courses also aimed at parents and adults since they are part of the problem and solution towards being able to bridge the gender gap in science and technology. Our current target group is still highly reliant on the opinions and guidance provided parents and tutors. Thus, it is important to show them the benefits of encouraging girls to become science and technology enthusiasts, since benefits go beyond a monetary or practical aspect.

Currently we are serving 1000 girls who have been actively involved with us through testing our prototypes, buying interactive courses, participating in live workshops or activities, or by downloading free content available in the platform. We contacted them through reaching out to people within our own networks, and contacting schools as well as using social media promotion campaigns. In August we aim to impact around 200 other girls and young women. We aim to reach 100 thousand users in the next year, and around 1 million in the next five years. 

Our social impact indicators are linked to: measuring the motivation level of our users to potentially choose a STEM career in the near future, having good feedback and satisfaction levels from students after they take a course monitored via survey, observing high participation levels in STEM related activities after the course as well as the user’s overall grades and involvement in science subjects or science and technology school activities and clubs.

Through our platform we measure the impact our courses have via integrated projects available after finalizing any course module. Furthermore, once the entire course is completed, we provide a follow up session where we have a general survey and conduct regular checkups in order to find out how the course has impacted the student after using our platform.

We have a total of 7 part-time staffers (including the founders).

We are Youth Challenge (UNICEF and UNDP international contest) Global Winners and a transdisciplinary team united by a 10-year-old friendship. Two of our team members are STEMers: Carmen is an environmental biologist and Miroslava is a mechatronics and computer engineer. Both of them have provided us with insights of what is like to work in the field, and what challenges they have come across. I (Andrea) am a political scientist and have a good understanding on how to approach the problem from a social perspective. Sophie who is a translator and voice actor helps us with translating our content into other languages by dubbing or adding subtitles to our courses. Similarly, Francisco is an economist and helps us keep track of our finances. Rodrigo has an academic background on socio-territorial studies, but he has always shown a passion for arts and thus helps us with the production, curation and editing of our educational material. Diego is our biomedical wildcard since he helps with programing the platform along with content curation.

Furthermore, Sophie, Carmen and Miroslava are very creative people which has pushed the team towards drawing the link between STEM subjects, everyday life, and other areas such as social sciences, humanities and arts. 

Our team (composed of 7 members) is inclusive since it has almost a perfect balance between males and females. In our case we have a female majority since all 4 co-founders are female and one of us is a member of the LQBTQ+ community. 

Furthermore, the name of our project / Avatar and AI is Erandi is an indigenous name from the Mexican Purepecha tribe. This name means awakening and thus refers to our student's awakening in STEM while keeping in mind indigenous groups which are usually underserved. 

As our platform is in the early stages, financial hurdles, growing our team and content and exploiting technology's potential remain our main concern. We believe that we would benefit from all the help provided by the Solve network to be able to build, grow and continue developing our business in order to reach more girls, support them to turn into remarkable STEMers and become recognized in the STEM e-learning domain. 

As mentioned before, financial hurdles, tech development, and developing a strong commercial and marketing strategy alongside expanding our client portfolio will be crucial for us to become a sustainable enterprise. 

Some organizations which we would like to partner with include: UNDP, UNICEF's Learning Passport, LEGO education, the MIT, MIT Media Lab, Lifelong Kindergarten group, Solve, Teach for Mexico, Education for Sharing, Dubai Cares, Sony, Cisco, UNESCO, Google, American Chamber of Commerce, Harvard School of Education, Byjus, Microsoft, and IBM. These partners can provide us with valuable insights on how to improve our platform on both the technical (UX/UI, design, programming etc...) and learning design. We can also be mentored by them and gain access to a vast network of potential allies, learn best practices (traction, business cases, education methodologies etc.), develop more content with teaching methodologies that are in line with the user's needs, and provide each other with exposure.

We believe we are qualified for the prize as our solution focuses on increasing female participation in STEM areas since women are still a minority in said fields. Furthermore, in the future we are aiming to have an app version of the current platform in order to provide children, girls and women in rural or remote areas with the same educational opportunities in STEM. 

Our solution qualifies for this prize as this is a solution created by female founders mainly for female beneficiaries. Women are still underrepresented in STEM and usually have access to less opportunities in comparison to their male counterparts. We are aiming to provide women with an early encounter with these fields in order to help them secure a bright future in science and technology. 

We believe we are fit to receive this prize since the core idea behind our project is to use IA in order to personalize the learning experience for every user and to be able to link the user’s hobbies and interests with STEM subjects. 

We believe we are fit to recieve this prize since the core idea behind our project is to use IA in order to personalize the learning experience of every user and be able to link their hobbie and interests with STEM subjects.  

If we win said prize we will be able to develop and train our IA.