DIEM visits Sciennes Primary School (29/02/2012)

On the 29th of February, project DIEM visited Sciennes Primary School. The topic of the workshop:  Trip to the moon - Energy transfer. It was our second visit to the school this year and we are hoping to come back soon! Here are some remarkable moments from our visit.

                                         Introduction to various types of energy.

                                         First discussions and design ideas

                                         Discussions and design ideas

                                         One team found the best sollution to the problem.

                                         Last touches before the demonstrations.

                                         Pulley.

                                         Our team after the workshop.

Closer Look: Aims and Objectives

There exists a link between an intermediate technology and the community it is intended for, this link is known as 'intermediate education'. This is the technical and scientific teachings behind an intermediate technology, which enables a community to understand and more fundamentally accept a beneficial technology.

Project DIEM aims to facilitate and encourage the teaching of science in developing countries to assist sustainable development. We will achieve this by producing a comprehensive science and technology education manual that will enhance the standards of science teaching by focusing on “experimental learning”.

This project is designed to target the way in which we implement projects in the developing world. It has three specific objectives:

(1) to allow technological ideas to be gently explored by the host communities.

(2) To trigger an understanding of a need, encouraging a demand for technologies.

(3) To allow more in-depth participation from communities with little or no scientific background.

In order for the objectives to be met the following phases need to be carried out;

1) Become familiar with local area

2) Establish and affirm relationships with local schools and partner NGO’s

3) Perform intermediate education workshops

4) Develop our understanding of the way how audience thinks through qualitative research and adjust material accordingly.

5) Continuously log and assess the impact of the project and the appropriateness of material.

6) Attempt to establish relationships with key individuals in the schools.

Analysis will be presented in the form of test results (quantitative research) to measure the effectiveness of the science workshops and social interaction with our audience in order to gauge their enthusiasm for hands on learning. Test results will be analysed on a statistical base and discussed with the UK teachers from whom we will be able to conclude the effectiveness of our material.  With definitive results and hands on experience we will be able to build better science workshops and offer better training for future members to aid the sustainable development of the project.

Introduction

DIEM (Developing Intermediate Educational Material) aims to facilitate and encourage the teaching of science in developing countries to assist sustainable development.


It is a project at the University of Edinburgh (established 4 years ago) which aims to produce educational material not only for children in the UK but especially for those in developing countries. It also makes students realise what the problems and needs of the developing world are, encourages students (us) to think about how we could apply our knowledge to help solve these problems. DIEM fully explained:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nomS1fObgQo&feature=player_embedded

Placement: Ghana  

There are four members who are involved in this years placement:

Margarita Skarkou, Caroline Wither, Patrick Benfield, Andrius Arbaciauskas.

At the moment we are aiming to fundraise money for our placement, which is going to take place in Ghana (summer 2012). We are going to spend about 8 weeks in Ghana cooperating with local communities and teaching children the basics of physics and engineering (we are all engineering students). The exceptional feature of this placement is that we are not using any gadgets or complicated models or devices made beforehand for our teaching. All we use is locally available materials, knowledge and creativity to make it easier for the local children to understand the concepts and technologies we are talking about. Our group has been developing workshops since last September and we even had a chance to try one of them in a local school. 


The educational material which we are constantly shaping has been developed for more than 3 years and tested for a number of times in schools in the UK and once in Ghana by the senior members of the project.

If You would like to contribute to this project this is our fundraising website: 
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=ProjectGhana2012 
Every donation is very much appreciated!