The Ghana Science & Tech Explorer Prize
The Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Challenge Prize (GSTEP) Challenge excites, encourages and supports Junior High School (JHS) students (ages 11-16) and teachers in Ghana to develop practical Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) skills and products that benefit local communities.
During this 3-year programme, we will be working with 20,000 Junior High School (JHS) students – as well as teachers, schools and communities in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions – to encourage practical learning and the development of STEM and ICT skills through a series of challenge prizes.
As part of these prizes, we will challenge students to come up with innovative new ideas to solve problems in their communities and, ultimately, support them to cultivate them into enterprising products and solutions.
For Ghana to truly thrive, it’s going to take a whole community to get behind the development of our future leaders. The Ghana Science and Tech Prize (GSTEP) is a great opportunity to do just that.
Participants
Junior High School students
Public and Private school youth ages, 11-16 primarily students within Junior High School (JHS) are encouraged to form teams of 4 to 6 team members and identify solutions to problems they face in their communities. The students are supported to develop prototypes of their solutions with STEM resources, materials, coaching and mentoring support. This is to help maximise their socio-economic development, prospects and opportunities for the future through STEM.
Youth Ambassadors
For students aged 14-18, a group of 25 young representatives from the Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti regions are chosen from the numerous applicants to become Youth Ambassadors as part of the Youth Steering Group (YSG) initiative of the GSTEP programme. The aim of the initiative is to help the participants connect, inspire and promote the benefits of (STEM) to the wider youth population while supporting them to use the skills acquired to achieve social impact and increase engagement and inclusion in Ghana’s STEM education sector.
The ambassadors are taken through a series of masterclasses, mentorship programs, and student hacks which will equip them with a range of social and employable skills
Teachers
Through the programme over 500 teachers are being equipped with practical STEM knowledge, tools and skills on harnessing technology for social good and tackling real-world problems relevant to young people. Selected teachers see their students and assist them to come up with groundbreaking community products and services that could win their school substantial cash and other prizes.
Technical Coaches
Technical experts in Engineering are assigned to participating teams to provide practical technical knowledge and skills and support the students to develop prototypes of the ideas they submitted for the Challenge.
Mentors
Each finalist team and Youth Ambassador is provided with a mentor who supports the students to build their knowledge in STEM and Entrepreneurship, experience real world applications of STEM and develop relevant 21st century skills including presentation and communication skills.
A quick view into GSTEP here.
To learn more about the Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Prize and the challenge, click the button below