Innovation Labs: Enabling Generations of Young Innovators

Commitment to Action

Innovation Labs: Enabling Generations of Young Innovators

Commitment by

Global Minimum Inc.

In 2013, Global Minimum committed to creating Innovation Labs in four secondary schools in Sierra Leone that will provide students with tools, curriculum, and leadership to support their creativity and invention. Building off of the launch of a successful competition, in which student teams entered their ideas and finalists were rewarded with capital, mentorship, and access to an innovation summer camp, these InLabs will provide every student in each of the four schools the opportunity to learn the tools of design, creative thinking, and innovation in general. Each lab will have an enrollment goal of 50 students, and Innovation Clubs will be formed in each school under selected faculty mentors. Like many African countries, young people constitute more than 50 percent of Sierra Leone's population. Supporting their entrepreneurial and creative capacities will promote innovation and economic development, and cultivate a transition from a country dependent on foreign aid toward a society where products and solutions are made locally.

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Tabs

Overview

Summary

Commitment

Innovation Labs: Enabling Generations of Young Innovators

Launched

2013

Est. Duration

3 years

Estimated Total Value

$150,000

Region

Africa

Countries

KENYA, SIERRA LEONE

Commitment by

Global Minimum Inc.

Partner(s) of the Commitment Maker(s)

MaKey MaKey, Autodesk, Inc., MIT Media Lab, SparkFun Electronics, Educate!, Prince of Wales Secondary School, Segal Family Foundation, Focus 1000, LUMA Institute

Details

APPROACH
Global Minimum will provide the necessary resources to foster a culture of innovation and creativity among Sierra Leonean youth so that they can play key roles in the social and economic development of their country. Innovation as a product, and more importantly as a process, is related to mind, community, and physical spaces. Global Minimum seeks to create opportunities to change mindsets, facilitate mentorship, develop community among innovators, and provide access to safe physical spaces with tools for exploration.
Global Minimum will develop Innovation Labs (InLabs) in four secondary schools in Sierra Leone. This initial investment will be the pilot of a larger project to make InLabs commonplace in every school and community in Sierra Leone, and thus will be developed using a replicable and structured approach. Initial InLabs will be based in the schools of 'A De Mek Am' competition finalists, as these schools have demonstrated their ability to support innovative students. InLabs will provide any interested student attending one of these four schools with opportunities to learn about innovation and allow students to experiment with their own ideas using the InLab's tools and resources
The three core requirements for InLabs are adequate physical space, technical tools, and mentorship and innovation leadership. Global Minimum and school staff will work together to identify a dedicated space for the InLab. Technical tools will be provided in the form of themed toolkits (e.g., digital media and electronic toolkit, crafting kit) and a curriculum guide for fostering innovation that will include practical guidance through relevant case examples. Innovation Clubs, open to any interested students, will be formed in each school. Faculty mentors and student leaders of the Innovation Clubs will be responsible for management and administration of InLabs.
The InLabs will serve as a haven, symbol, and space for innovation, where students will develop evolving prototypes and experience the creative freedom needed to explore new ways of thinking and problem solving. After the 2012 competition, Global Minimum established two 'mini labs', and the applications submitted to the 2013 'A De Mek Am' competition by the students who had access to these labs surpassed every other entry. Global Minimum sees a direct result in the quality of creativity and output when students have a place to go.
ACTION PLAN
October - December 2013:
- Conduct formative research with students, mentors, and school officials
- Identify the secondary school for the first Lab
- Make logistical arrangements with school officials
- Design toolkits
- Secure materials for the Innovation Labs
January - March 2014:
- Design and set up the first Lab
- Develop a schedule for Innovation Workshops with Global Minimum Fellows
- Begin the monitoring and evaluation plan related to projects developed, usage of space, etc
April 2014 - June 2015:
- Implement labs in three additional schools
- Continue the monitoring and evaluation plan
- Iteratively incorporate lessons learned into new Labs as they are being rolled out
July - September 2015:
- Maintain the labs
- Develop a final monitoring and evaluation report with recommendations on how to develop innovation spaces in other areas within Sierra Leone and beyond
Global Minimum expects to see at least two truly innovative projects developed in each Innovation Lab by the end of the second year. Additional targets are outlined in the monitoring and evaluation plan below.

Background

In Sierra Leone and many other countries, there is a need for established platforms that encourage youth to actively think of themselves as problem solvers and innovators, helping to advance the social and economic development of their countries and communities. A number of competitions connect professionals or young people with resources to achieve their ideas for social change, but these programs have yet to provide the same resources for young students in developing countries. Little attention is paid to systematically training young people in Africa to develop and implement their own solutions.

Young people in Sierra Leone, like many other African countries, constitute more than 50 percent of the population but their entrepreneurial and creative capacities are not being utilized to their fullest potential to promote innovation and economic development. To cultivate a transition from a country dependent on foreign aid toward a society where products and solutions are made locally, individuals must be offered the structure, technologies, and opportunities to solve the problems they see around them.

In 2012, Global Minimum launched the 'A De Mek Am' competition, which aims to foster a network of innovative and creative youth across Sierra Leone. In the first year of the competition, 300 students entered their ideas to be judged and evaluated, and the best were offered the chance to participate in the summer camp. The finalist teams were also provided with capital, mentorship, and a network of other inventors. These teams received national recognition, and were able to share their inventions with the world through venues such as the Google+ Make Magazine's Summer Maker Camp. Now in its second year, the competition is an established success, with 40% growth in applications from nearly every district in Sierra Leone.
Through the competitions and camps, students have demonstrated an overwhelming interest in having the opportunity to design solutions for challenges that they see within their communities. However, the competition has also exposed the lack of opportunity for students to learn the tools of design, creative thinking, and innovation in general. Global Minimum hopes to take the interest in innovation generated by the competition and create spaces for continuous learning, experimentation, and community building.

Partnership Opportunities

Global Minimum is seeking financial resources, implementing partners, best practices, media support and topic expertise to scale our InLab programs into 3 additional educational institutions.

Progress Reports

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.