The STEM Guyana Project team will be launching its Grade Six mobile maths app at the National Racquet Centre on Woolford Avenue today.
The mobile maths app was created to help the more than 14,000 children of Guyana who will be taking the Grade Six exam each year.
During the summer of 2016, STEM Guyana hosted more than 200 students in four robot building and programming camps held in Georgetown, Buxton and Lusignan.
The Grade Six mobile maths app launch was made possible through the full support of the Office of the First Lady of Guyana and the Ministry of the
Presidency.
The STEM Guyana team also met with National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) head Jennifer Cumberbatch, and has gained the full support of the organisation within the Education Ministry responsible for the development of STEM education. STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.
Co-Founder of the STEM Guyana Project, Karen Abrams said the organisation envisioned working with NCERD to improve the functionality of the app, to test the outcomes, and to improve the distribution to students and classrooms across Guyana.
Last year, Cabinet approved the sum of $48 million to roll out a nationwide Mathematics programme aimed at enhancing the competency level of students in primary schools.
Officials say Guyana has been performing progressively worse in the subject area.
The programme would focus on training teachers in content and methodology, facilitating fortnightly cluster meetings in all regions, the recruitment of Mathematics coordinators and monitors, the training of officers and school administrators to supervise the teaching of Maths, preparing and administering a diagnosis assessment of pupils in hinterland before training, enhancing public relations and parental involvement in education, and acquisition of support material for students.
