The Visiola Foundation’s 2016 STEM Summer Camp for Teenage Girls took place on August 1 – 8, 2016 at Aduvie International School, Abuja. It brought together 45 girls from various ethnic groups in Ghana and Nigeria and provided an enabling environment for them to work together and foster friendships and a keen sense of team-building.
Participants were given daily challenges to solve simulated problems that affect people in their communities. They developed innovative ideas to combat drought, floods, food insecurity, electricity shortages, and so on. They additionally built individual and group projects using the concepts they learned in robotics, electronics, mechanics, and computer programming. They also learned to believe in themselves, stand for what is right, help others, and speak confidently.The students had the unique opportunity to interact with leading STEM professionals from various countries. They were mentored by Ms. Johanna Amunjela (a renowned Namibian Cancer Researcher), Ms. Titilope Sonuga (Intel Corporation’s Ambassador), Dr. Jeremy Goettel (Instructor in Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School), Mr. Daniel Kaplan (Mathematician at Imperial College), Ms. Marieme Doukoure-Amoa (Senior Manager, Raytheon Corporation), Ms. Yewande Akinola (Design Engineer at Laing ‘O Rourke), Ms. Tolu Falola (Oil Segment Leader, Schneider Electric), Ms. Chibuzo Okereke (Engineer, Schneider Electric), and Mr. Francis O’Size (Operations Director, Young Engineers Nigeria).
The students were divided into five groups and developed final projects, including computer animations built with Scratch, an online game built with Scratch, a conveyor belt and washing machine prototype built with LEGO Bricks, a robotic forklift built with LEGO Mindstorms NXT, and a salt water alarm. The judges had a difficult time selecting the best project and ultimately chose the Mechanics Team as the winner with the Robotics Team coming in second.
Maryam was voted to be the overall best participant and she was rewarded with a laptop prize; which was generously donated by Intel Corporation Nigeria. The camp was a great experience and has helped to ignite the passion and potential of all who participated.
Watch these exciting, short demo videos of robotic forklift and the washing machine prototypes.
Connect with us to stay up-to-date.
