Growing together
Thursday aft
ernoon, after the drag races, we began working on implementing WIFI with the Intel Galileo boards, the girls worked again in teams of 2 to follow the directions we had prepared, no hesitation exists anymore in trying new ideas or going beyond the initial instructions. As they had put LEDs on their cars for headlights and taillights and programmed the turns and twists of the race, they now tested and implemented the WIFI and then began discussing the guidelines for the next week’s projects. I was amazed at how competent they had become in just a few days. They were to use the knowledge they had gained this week to plan a project that would have impact on their community. Some continued to enhance the cars they built earlier, others change the overall design of their ideas to begin the idea of the project they would complete.. All of them were engaged and ready to move forward with new team members. I heard several ideas as teams were being formed. Guidelines stated they needed a country diverse group (no more than two team members from the same country) but they were not restricted to their current classrooms. As we wrapped up the last session of the day, I knew in my mind that the next week was going to be more amazing than this week. Looking back, I think I learned more from this group of students than they learned from me. Teaching is an art that grows with experience and this experience has changed the way I teach.
Final week
Monday morning started with a beautiful sunrise. From my hotel I could see the sliver of a moon as the sun rose with the red hues of morning light. This was the beginning of our final week. We no longer had content to prepare or teach, the week and the progress was totally dependent upon the projects that our students dreamed about. With the partners we encouraged the teams to develop a project abstract that would allow us to evaluate and give feedback on their ideas. Some teams had decided upon the project and were already working on implementation. Other teams had multiple ideas and they could not decide which to implement, they wanted me to decide for them, which I could not do.
Five projects were assigned to my room, I have different girls than last week, some I know from last week and some I get to know this week. Abstracts are written and delivered to be reviewed. We determined the hardware they needed and I collected and brought each team their sensors and other items that were critical to their project. Most of the sensors were new to our technical team so we all picked a few and started testing. Our worst nightmare was that the students would run into a technical problem that we could not fix. On Monday and Tuesday everything ran smoothly. I was worried about one project as they never seemed to be around and did not appear to be working. After testing the two sensors they needed they were gone, as opposed to a very technical project that was constantly asking for help and to which we kept adding more sensors
We worked
through all the technical topics, they delivered pitches, I listened to them and they listened to me, we worked together, and panicked together when a sensor failed, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when it worked. What was hidden from me, was the work on the presentation and marketing pitches, we focused on the technical and not so much on the rest of the project. This amazing result became evident to me on the final day. The product and marketing info far surpassed my expectations.
I could not be prouder of the results of the 
projects, these young women excelled in everything they did. Even the one where I had concerns, they exceeded my expectations. I post these photos to bear witness to what amazing women were in my group.
As I walked to the last dinner at the camp, 4 young women, my students, approached me and gave me big hugs, they said ‘Thank you for coming to teach us, it is inspiring for us to see a woman in the role of trainer, you have taught us so much, thank you for this, we will never forget!”
I am sitting on the plane the last leg of my journey back to my real job, and home. I am reading the biographies of my students in the handbook, which the girls wrote prior to WiSCI 2015. I am proud of what they learned, proud of how they have changed, and very proud that I had the opportunity to teach them.
er for WiSCI 2015, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) camp for 120 High School Students from 9 different countries (90 from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and 30 from the USA) . As the only female technical trainer in a team of 4 volunteer technical trainers, I feel especially thankful for this opportunity. After months of preparation and planning we arrived in Rwanda late evening with only 4 days before we would start teaching the girls the basics of programming and electronics using the Intel Galileo Board. I met four of my teammates with whom I had only spoken to on the phone at the airport in Brussels, the other three I met at Kigali airport when we landed. Throwing 8 people into a bus, is certainly a good way to get to know each other, the conversations were fast and furious.
