How to use this resource
This resource is divided into three main sections:
1. Setting the scene
These are tasks, activities and discussion points that provide context and background to support young learners’ understanding of the physical characteristics of Africa, and background on the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As part of the Africa Prize, each of the engineering entrepreneurs demonstrates how their innovation meets one or more of the 17 SDGs as set out by the United Nations in 2015, these have been included as a running theme throughout the resource. More information about the SDGs and ideas for activities that could be used to introduce them to learners can be found on page 12.
The starter activities are designed to motivate, engage and raise awareness of the environment in which the core STEM learning tasks are set, as well as continuing to bridge the gap between STEM subjects and other areas of the school curriculum.
2. ‘In the box’ activities
The ‘in the box’ activities explore individual Africa Prize innovations in more detail.
The activities are UK curriculum-linked and could be taught as topics as part of timetabled lessons or as enrichment activities.
As each of these activities focuses on an innovation from an engineer and entrepreneur from a specific country, each activity has starter tasks that encourage pupils to develop a stronger understanding of the local environment that the innovation has been designed for.
3. World’s largest lesson
Inspired by the engineers and entrepreneurs, pupils will work together to plan, design and engineer a product, system or technology that will improve the experiences of those in their community.
They will demonstrate how their innovation works towards one of the SDGs, showing that although their design is for their local community, they are conscious, global citizens.
Once pupils have completed their project, they can share their work with other young people around the world as part of the ‘world’s largest lesson’.
We suggest that you and your pupils work on this challenge after they have completed a selection of tasks and challenges from the ‘in the box’ activities mentioned above. The challenge is designed to be carried out over several hours, which could be a whole STEM day or one hour a week over the course of a school term.
Pupils can work towards a CREST award as they journey through this project. More information about the CREST award can be found on page 6 of the resource.