This year the GSTEP Challenge is opening up for more students to have the opportunity to access STEM knowledge, resources, and skills through the challenge prize. One hundred teams comprising over five hundred students from the Greater Accra, Eastern, and Ashanti regions have been selected to participate in the programme.
Thirty-five teams were selected from the Greater Accra region, twenty-five from the Eastern region and forty teams from the Ashanti region were selected. The teams were selected after a rigorous assessment process was undertaken to assess over 1,200 ideas submitted for the Challenge. The selected teams were the top-scoring teams from each region.
The selected teams will participate in an induction event in July to officially onboard them into the programme. They will participate in workshops to prepare them for the Challenge and be paired with their mentors and coaches. The team will then proceed to the finalist support stage during which they will be provided with materials, resources, mentorship, and coaching to assist them to develop prototypes of their ideas. After developing their prototypes they will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges who will then select a winner for the Challenge. Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony in January.
The teams will also participate in a series of activities to assist them to see and understand practical applications of STEM skills and knowledge through industry visits. The teams will visit institutions and organisations to witness how industries operate using STEM. They will also have the opportunity to participate in media engagements to discuss STEM-related issues and their ideas for the GSTEP programme. They will also present their prototypes and ideas to the general public at an Exhibition in January.
The GSTEP Challenge is offering Ghana’s youth the opportunity to develop 21st-century skills and make impactful contributions to their communities and society at large through STEM. Students will be encouraged to think critically and creatively about solutions to problems around them and address these problems with resources available to them.