STEAM LAB in classrooms of rural and native communities

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, education problems have increased due to lack of connectivity and learning inequality. In Latin America, around 120 million school-age children had missed or were at risk of missing a full year of attendance in the school calendar. In rural areas and indigenous peoples, in addition to showing a large inequality gap in connectivity, there is a lack of resources adapted to their context for the training of teachers and children in areas of science and technology.

If teachers and children have opportunities to access comprehensive learning in STEAM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), we can accelerate progress in the education of children in vulnerable areas. Unfortunately, in rural and native communities, teachers face multiple problems in their preparation, for example, they do not have resources or training to teach STEAM skills. Parents and children in these communities are also not interested because the resources used by teachers are limited and do not adapt to their reality. As a result, in the case of Peru, almost 60% of students have difficulties learning science, this increases in rural areas. If we talk about the gender gap, 3 out of 10 researchers are women and there are no statistics on the involvement of people from indigenous peoples.

STEAM LAB helps teachers and students in their training and learning, through a STEAM learning application, a blender learning platform and STEAM kits as classroom resources. In this way, resources adapted to the local context are provided, for the teaching of STEAM areas in classrooms of rural and native communities.

STEAM LAB has three main elements:

1)Train teachers on the use of STEAM kits adapted to their local context and training modules through the STEAM blender learning platform.

2) Facilitate project-based STEAM learning for teachers and students through adapted resources, without language or cultural barriers.

3) Involve parents in STEAM projects that children develop based on the experiences and realities of their region.

4) Connect teachers from different rural and native communities, scientists and STEAM trainers, through the resources shared on the platform, which allow their experiences and knowledge to be known.

We provide support and training on STEAM areas, to teachers who work in rural and native communities, in order to have a greater impact on the formation of STEAM skills of boys and girls and promote the participation of parents. 

Currently, the educational system does not have sufficient scope in vulnerable areas, which is why teachers have limited skills and few materials adapted to the reality of their context for the STEAM training of their students. Likewise, there are few STEAM trainers at the country level, which makes the situation even more difficult. In addition, school infrastructures have limited or no connectivity, and do not have laboratories to train children in areas of science and technology. STEAM LAB will help teachers and students break down these educational barriers, making STEAM training inclusive and accessible. Through a learning application, a blender learning platform and STEAM kits, resources adapted to the local context will be provided so that teachers can develop STEAM sessions in their classrooms. In this sense, the interaction of the educational community will be facilitated in order to exchange experiences and strengthen their knowledge

We are a committed, persevering, creative, visionary and multidisciplinary team that loves children and believes that it is possible to contribute to the improvement of education. We have a common concern for social responsibility and bringing a STEAM experience to children. We have been working together for three years at Ichik Lab, in the development of STEAM kits adapted to the context of teachers from rural and native communities

Our team includes a Shipibo-speaking primary school teacher (from the Shipibo community in the Amazon), who is conducting fun science workshops in a rural school in the Ucayali region. We know closely the reality of the teachers who work in these remote areas and we have experience in the development of educational materials guided in a process of co-creation with teachers and parents. In this sense, we have trained other teachers from native communities (Quechuas, Shipibos and Aymaras), in order to help them teach science in their schools and learn about their experiences to pass them on to other teachers in remote areas

In our work, we found technical limitations for the access of resources by teachers, for which we need to improve our work in the development of the blended-learning platform with a classification of trainers and STEAM content. Likewise, we have financial limitations to cover the aforementioned and equipment necessary for the development of educational resources such as cameras and multimedia equipment. On the other hand, we require the support of Solve to make more alliances with strategic partners such as schools, institutions, companies, rural and native communities, the educational and scientific community, etc., which allow us to make this project sustainable and achieve a greater impact.

Our STEAM LAB solution is innovative because it provides an integrated system based on: a STEAM learning application, a blended learning platform and STEAM kits; that trains teachers from rural and native communities, in the development of their classes under the STEAM methodology. Likewise, this system empowers children's education and involves parents. STEAM LAB provides STEAM content adapted to the local reality, helping teachers and children in their learning of science and technology. It is the only educational system that combines the use of an application, kits and a continuous learning platform. It also allows sharing STEAM experiences among teachers, making the impact scalable.

Our vision for next year is to continue training teachers from rural and native communities (1,300 teachers), who currently work in rural and native communities. After 5 years we will scale our solution, managing to impact the STEAM education of 61 thousand children and educators in Peru, being able to replicate the experience in other countries with a similar context such as Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc. For the training of teachers through the STEAM LAB strategy in rural and native communities, we plan to do this through 1) Increasing the number of our institutional associations, including regional and municipal governments 2) Achieving key alliances with the community of teachers and the scientific community. 3) Achieve a multiplier effect of teachers trained in STEAM areas.

Our vision is to scale our solution to transform the lives of more people.

The implementation of the STEAM LAB in classrooms of rural and native communities has an impact on parity rates, managing to involve a greater number of female teachers and reduce the gender gap. It enables the training of teachers from indigenous peoples, reducing the equality gap in education. Likewise, it contributes to the number of teachers with the minimum qualifications required to teach STEAM areas to their students.

STEAM LAB has been training teachers from rural and native communities in the use of STEAM kits in their classrooms. As a result, teachers have shown greater confidence in doing their science classes, less time in preparing their learning sessions, greater confidence in responding to children in research projects and greater awareness of the importance of STEAM skills in your students. Consequently, children develop skills such as: teamwork, critical thinking, curiosity, creativity, responsibility, among others; achieving access to an inclusive education and in the long term having a greater probability of opting for a STEAM career. Regarding the parents, as a result of their approach of working together with their children, it strengthens their parent-child relationships, allows them to share their experiences in the region and they feel happy to see their children learn.

Technology is part of our solution: STEAM LAB is a system made up of:

A. A STEAM learning application, which shares support content for managing STEAM Kits.

B. A blended learning platform: connects teachers, scientists and STEAM trainers, aimed at training teachers from rural and native communities. We plan to develop a machine learning classification algorithm for trainers (scientists, teachers with STEAM skills), as well as an integrated video platform and online chat to train teachers synchronously and asynchronously.

C. STEAM Kits: Contains safe materials and supplies for the student and a manual to carry out experiments. This resource is for use in the classroom and is adapted to the local context.

We are a multidisciplinary team, where 75% of the members are women, who come from the 3 regions of Peru (Costa, Sierra and Selva). Within the leadership team we have a teacher from the Native Curiaca del Caco community in the Ucayali region. In addition, we have been working on a co-creation process for the development of various kits and platform content, which involves EIB (bilingual intercultural education) teachers who represent the native communities: Quechuas, Aymaras and Shipibos. Our goal is to include more rural and native communities, achieving a greater impact of educational inclusion, in order to be able to replicate it in other countries with similar contexts.

We provide STEAM training to transform lives of teachers and children from rural and native communities, who do not have opportunities for training or training in STEAM skills. Our key activities are the development and management of the STEAM LAB system through the STEAM application, platform and kits; teacher training, and alliances with public and private institutions. The use of our STEAM LAB system gives teachers confidence in teaching STEAM areas to children. Likewise, clients such as: corporate companies with social responsibility, public and private schools, retails and Government Institutions; they have the opportunity to collaborate in transforming the lives of those most in need. The sale of STEAM kits, training workshops, agreements and optional donations allow us to make our business model sustainable

We currently develop and sell STEAM kits to help implement STEAM classrooms in rural and native communities. We have carried out this work mainly in Lima, the Ucayali region and Cuzco. Our business model involves allies such as: Regional Governments, Municipalities, Ministry of Education and Educational Institutions in the public sector, which will allow us to be financially sustainable in the long term. 

In the private sector we have a plan to involve corporate companies with social responsibility (mining companies, financial entities, etc). Likewise, retails, private educational companies, foundations and non-profit organizations in the educational sector

Our STEAM kit sales plan through the social enterprise Ichik Lab https://www.instagram.com/ichiklab/ https://www.facebook.com/ichiklab, has allowed us to develop new content such as packs digital and new kits, which have financed fun science workshops in Lima, the Ucayali region, Cuzco and Madre de Dios. Our alliances with the academy such as the Faculty of Education of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia- and the incubator of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos https://www.facebook.com/1551in/photos/a.798135146913306/5148376935222417, have allowed train our allied teachers and prepare to apply for competitive funds. The collaborative work that we have been carrying out with the Municipalities (Lima and Magdalena del Mar), helps us to have greater visibility on the networks, give workshops, access communities of teachers and parents, and participate in school fairs to sell our products. We have managed to fully translate materials such as the book