March 2016
Global Minimums (GMin) first InLab Program in Kenya at St. Elizabeth Girls Academy in Nairobi exposed 280 students from St. Elizabeth Girls Academy and surrounding schools in Nairobi with user-centered design curriculum and hands-on STEAM workshops.
They first hosted an Educator Training in order to obtain the buy-in from the STEM teachers at St. Elizabeth Girls Academy. GMin developed a two-week Educator Training whereby GMin InLab staff trained four teachers, including Mr. Wachiuri (Physics Teacher), Mr. Daniel Mburu (Chemistry Teacher), Mr. Bramwel (Mathematics Teacher), and Mr. Raphael Kinuthia (Business Studies Teacher). Mr. Wachiuri was the lead liaison between the teachers and GMin InLab staff.
GMin set expectations by sharing the vision of GMin, the objectives of InLab, and expectations of the teachers role. The teachers were introduced to Project-Based Learning, Design Thinking, and two educational tools:Adobe Photoshop and Scratch. In addition, GMin InLab staff shadowed each teacher in their classrooms, where GMin conducted a needs assessment and curriculum review.
GMin InLab staff facilitated a five week Design Thinking Course. The teachers selected 30 students based on prior interest shown during the pop-up Demo Lab and students academic performance. Of the 30 students, 26 students were from the 8-4-4 system, while four students were from the International Baccalaureate (IB) system.
During the first two weeks, GMin InLab staff introduced InLabs, set expectations, and taught the principle of Design Thinking by taking the students through:1) The Design Brief; 2) Interview Preparation; 3) Problem Framing Exercise; 4) Ideation; 5) Selection Process; and 6) Prototyping. They were also introduced to Adobe Photoshop and Scratch.
During the last three weeks, GMin announced the thematic topic of the design challenge, the community-based organization (CBO), and the CBOs Design Brief. For this academic term, GMin selected waste management as the thematic topic and selected African Born 3D Printing (AB3D) as the CBO. AB3D is a CBO that focuses on building 3D printers from e-waste.They provided the Design Brief mentioned above. Students participated in problem framing exercise, literature review, ideation, and prototyping.
GMin also hosted standalone STEAM workshops in June 2015. They introduced the students to educational toolkits in their inventory list, such as the Empathy Toys, MaKey MaKey, Arduino, and Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. The students learned how these tools can be leveraged to understand, solve, and communicate community problems.
Finally, GMin hosted a four day Design Thinking Camp during the August summer holidays between Term 2 and Term 3, where GMin staff introduced the basic principles of the design thinking process using a thematic challenge of poor access to healthcare systems in Kenya. Nearly 20 students learned to empathize with diverse constraints faced by different stakeholders in the healthcare system, define problem framing statements, brainstorm ideas, and build paper prototypes that improved the daily activities of doctors, nurses, and patients. The camp was successful at familiarizing the students with design thinking.