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STEM on wheels – Meeting the needs of 4IR

When we look at the educational scenario in South Africa and, particularly when the Matric results come out every year, two things are obvious:

  • We are lagging seriously behind in subjects such as Mathematics and Science
  • Government schools and especially schools in previously disadvantaged communities cannot achieve the results that private schools attain in these subjects.

It’s the harsh reality of a country that is so socio-economically split. And we can choose to accept the situation or to do something about it. Greenlight Education is an organisation dedicated to ensuring that children have more access to STEM subjects. As they say:

“We are building a better South Africa, one child at a time, creating a new landscape in which 4IR can rise.”

The STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will play an ever-increasing role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution(4IR) – these are the skills and knowledge needed to develop a future South Africa with 21st century skills.

South Africa’s track record in these science subjects is low, and part of the reason for this is that a number of schools don’t have access to proper teaching facilities. Greenlight Education asked themselves how to make STEM labs available to schools that don’t even have proper teaching facilities.

And so, the concept of mobile STEM labs came into being. It’s a brilliant and an innovative solution. Instead of being overwhelmed by the funds, organisation, administration and planning of building a STEM laboratory for every school – an almost insurmountable problem – Greenlight’s solution was to take the STEM lab to the schools, using a converted container mounted on a truck.

The advantages are numerous:

  • The number of students that can be accommodated increases, as the lab is not for one school only but for many schools
  • The mobile STEM lab can be kitted out with the latest and most up to date equipment in a secure environment
  • The educators can identify those students that display exceptional skills or interest and nurture them accordingly – they are not being selected from a single school but numerous schools.

This is a first for Container Conversions. While they have modified many containers into classrooms located at various schools, they have never modified a container into a STEM laboratory. The company is as excited as Greenlight is about the potential for these mobile STEM labs and the contribution they can make to improving our results in the STEM subjects, exposing many more scholars to STEM and ensuring that our previously disadvantaged schools are able to offer more than just a basic learning environment.

If you’d like to know more about Greenlight Education, follow this link.