The future of work, STEM, and education: Taking home lessons from Egypt, India, and Mexico

Group Submission Type: Pre-conference Workshop

Description of Session

The ability of today’s students to answer current and future challenges—both locally and on the scale of the international Sustainable Development Goals—depends on them being well-prepared in fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as the arts, design and manufacturing (often referred to as STEM, STEAM, or STEM2D). In many contexts, work opportunities also draw strongly on these fields. When education systems do not give enough emphasis to STEM education, when they cannot keep pace with rapid advancements and technological changes, and do not integrate critical soft skills into the learning process, young people often leave school unprepared, and societies and economies miss out. This workshop features a series of three hands-on activities allowing participants to learn from advancements in STEM education in Egypt, India, and Mexico, in collaboration with MIT’s global Fab Lab Network, the Fab Foundation, FHI 360, and World Learning. Participants will take home lessons they can apply to schools, development projects, and policy frameworks.

Proposal

Monika Aring (FHI 360)
Hany Attalla (World Learning)
Sherry Lassiter (Fab Foundation)
Catherine Honeyman (World Learning)

Workshop Rationale: This workshop will give participants a practical and hands-on exposure to advancements in STEM education in Egypt, India, and Mexico, in collaboration with MIT’s global Fab Lab Network, the Fab Foundation, FHI 360, and World Learning.

The workshop will open with a scene-setting discussion led by Monika Aring, on the future of work and its implications for education systems around the world. Hany Attalla will then present the experience in Egypt of the USAID-funded STEM Schools Project, focusing on its identification of 10 grand challenges for Egypt that then became the focal point for creating an innovative integrated secondary school curriculum. In small groups, participants will come up with their own list of 10 grand challenges in their own countries or regions and map their linkages to STEM fields, following the same process that was used by the Ministry of Education in Egypt.

Sherry Lassiter will then present on the Fab Labs approach and the learning gained from integrating Fab Labs into secondary schools and universities in Egypt, India, and Mexico. Participants in the workshop will have the opportunity to design a capstone project or prototype that responds to one of their grand challenges, using a collection of materials supplied by the Fab Lab at the Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad Anáhuac México Norte.

Finally, all workshop presenters will join together to raise the question of how curriculum can become more responsive and adaptable to constantly changing technology and work opportunities, and how learning manufacturing can be directly tied to the curriculum and its grand challenges for a more practical orientation. Exploring the potentials for “crowdsourced curriculum”, workshop participants will share initial ideas for lesson plans based on their workshop products, to be shared back to teachers in Egypt, India, and Mexico.

Duration and Size: 3 hours, for approximately 32 participants

Special Requests: Set up room with small round tables for approximately 8 participants each. Also need projector equipment; other supplies will be brought by workshop leaders.

Sub Unit

• Pre-Conference Workshops

Workshop Organizers

• Monika Aring, FHI 360

• Hany Attalla, World Learning

• Sherry Lassiter, Fab Foundation

• Catherine Honeyman, World Learning