More than 500 high school students from Lagos Education District 1’s underserved communities of Agege, Alimosho, and Ifako-Ijaiye participated in a series of STEM workshops sponsored by the US Consulate General in Lagos from October 12 to 28.
Students learned how to build, program, and fly drones, as well as computer programming, solar panel assembly, weather balloon technology, cell phone repair, artificial intelligence, and video game coding, during the workshops.
The initiative was designed to stimulate the interest of the participating students in math and science, as well as careers in the STEM fields, according to U.S. Consulate Public Affairs Officer Stephen Ibelli, who spoke at the program’s closing ceremony at Government Senior College in Agege.
The workshops, according to Ibelli, are part of the US Mission’s ongoing efforts to promote STEM education in Nigeria. He explained that ensuring access to STEM opportunities encourages innovation and creates the conditions for a more prosperous society.
“The U.S. Mission in Nigeria is committed to supporting programs that provide youth with access to quality technological learning opportunities,” Ibelli said. “In a world that’s becoming increasingly technology-driven, it’s more important than ever before for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to become innovators, educators, researchers, and leaders who can solve the most pressing challenges facing our world, both today and tomorrow.”
Eno Umoh, co-founder of Global Air Drone Academy, stressed the importance of providing students with the necessary skills to succeed in the global economy of the twenty-first century.
Umoh explained that an education to develop tech skills places students on track to acquire such STEM enabling competencies like critical and computational thinking, collaboration and creativity that has lifelong advantages.
“All we need is the spark that will inspire the students’ curiosity and interest in science and math that can lead to career opportunities in STEM fields,” Umoh added.
The capacity building program tagged “Global Air Drone Challenge for Students” was led by instructors from U.S.-headquartered Global Air Drone Academy in partnership with the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
The Global Air Drone Challenge for Students follows the five-day Global Air Drone Challenge for Teachers, which introduced 50 teachers from Agege, Alimosho, and Ifako-Ijaiye to best practices in integrating an integrated approach to teaching STEM in the classroom.
The US Mission’s goal of strengthening human capital for inclusive Nigerian economic growth and human development is supported by these capacity-building workshops for teachers and students.
