We are on the map now! Martin Cook wrote an outstanding article that was published in the district's international newsletter! Please check it out!
Training science, math & engineering teachers across Ghana
Martin Cook - Colorado Springs Rotary Club
The Downtown Colorado Springs Club has taken a strong interest in an educational NGO in Ghana and is looking for other clubs to join us in sponsoring it and perhaps even seeking a Global Grant. What follows is a description of the NGO and its work. The Founder and director of the NGO will be visiting Colorado Springs during the period of July 20-23, and she will be speaking at our club on Friday the 23rd during our meeting from 12:15-1:30 pm. She would be available to discuss her work with interested individuals and Clubs during that time.
Dr. Heather Beem is the Founder, President, and CEO of The Practical Education Network (PEN)
(www.practicaleducationnetwork.com). Dr. Beem has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. She moved to Ghana and has devoted her work to find ways to train science, math, and engineering teachers across Ghana in innovative, hands-on ways to teach science using only inexpensive and readily available materials. In Ghana, most schools can’t afford even a single piece of science equipment. Our International Committee is interested in applying for grants to support PEN’s work and we may even shoot for a Global Grant.
As a result of COVID, PEN has had to modify its teaching methods from in-person teacher training to various virtual methods. As you might imagine, this is challenging in the extreme in a country like Ghana where the internet structure is unreliable and often not available. But this turns out to have an advantage: PEN is able to reach far more teachers with their training and to think about expanding their work beyond Ghana to other sub-Saharan African countries. It is estimated that, by 2100, one-third of all human beings alive will be in Africa, and the work PEN is doing developing talent in STEM areas will be key to Africa’s flourishing with that many people.
While we hope that we can secure Rotary grants eventually to support PEN’s work, Dr. Beem has recently indicated an urgent need for additional funds to support this expanded work. For the past year, she has been running everything from her living room! She needs funding for some of these
needs much sooner than our grant processes can possibly provide. So Kathleen encouraged me to write up her request in case individual Rotarians might wish to contribute directly.
Judith Casey and my wife and I are already “PEN Pals” (monthly contributors to her efforts), and we plan to contribute additional funds for Dr. Beem’s specific requests: “We have been working from my living room for the last 9 months or so. Although it has been a blessing to avoid paying rent during the period of uncertainty that COVID presented, we have reached the limit of what we can effectively use the space for. Given that we are translating our content online, we are frequently recording audio and video. This requires the persons speaking to be in one corner of the room and everyone else to remain still and silent for stretches of time. A larger space will enable us to record content at a higher frequency and see greater productivity across the entire team. We are looking to rent a 3-room space for 2 years. After that time, we will start looking into options for buying our own space. The rent and furnishing of this office space will cost $35K. We are also going to set up a small showcase room within the office, as part of our new advocacy efforts, which will cost $5K. And finally, we are looking to purchase a newer vehicle ($10K) to effectively move around town to run our errands. All of these core elements of our operation will enable us to work more efficiently. We are rounding off a series of online training in Accra in June. We'll use the summer period to get these key operational elements in place, then plan toward our online training pilot beyond Ghana in the latter half of the year.”