Empowering Afghanistan
with 21st Century Skills
STEM Education for Afghans
21st Century Afghan program is committed to educating Afghans in 21st Century Skills and Technologies for Engineering, Robotics, and Coding. Our goal is to educate and prepare Afghanistan for the technology, computer science, and STEM education workforce. In our first year, we taught 118 students, prepared 18 teaching assistants, have 50 in the first course, and 45 in Advanced 21st Century Skills course.
What is the 21st Century Afghan Program?
We created a scaffolded program to teach engineering, robotics, and coding skills built on teamwork and problem-solving. We developed three courses that build on each other in a way that supports any level of experience. We integrated English literacy skills and included a Train-the-Trainer program.
1st course – 21st Century Technologies and Skills: Engineering, Robotics, Coding
2nd Course – Advanced 21st Century Skills: Engineering, Robotics, and Coding
3rd Course – Industry Preparation for 21st Century Careers: IT, CS, CAD, Civil, ENG,
Train-the-Trainer – Preparation program for Teaching Assistants and Instructors
Teaching Assistants
Having a crew of Teaching Assistants (TAs) is a critical component for success. Access to electricity and internet severely reduces attendance. Our best solution was to train and engage TAs to help those who can’t attend continue to learn and advance along with the course.
Implementation
We discovered right away that there was limited access to computers, electricity, or internet; computers and high-speed internet was not available. Attending class consistently as the internet and electricity is on, off, on again, and off again without any pattern. We needed a solution to find a way to teach all the students even if they could not get to class consistently.
Resources Needed
- Monetary support to pay Afghan Teaching Assistants and Instructors.
- A steady supply of computers that support Windows 10 or higher
- Consistent access to high-speed internet/Wi-Fi
- Reliable electricity
Having a crew of Teaching Assistants (TAs) is a critical component for success. Access to electricity and internet severely reduces attendance. Our best solution was to train and engage TAs to help those who can’t attend continue to learn and advance along with the course.
We discovered right away that there was limited access to computers, electricity, or internet; computers and high-speed internet was not available. Attending class consistently as the internet and electricity is on, off, on again, and off again without any pattern. We needed a solution to find a way to teach all the students even if they could not get to class consistently.
- Monetary support to pay Afghan Teaching Assistants and Instructors.
- A steady supply of computers that support Windows 10 or higher
- Consistent access to high-speed internet/Wi-Fi
- Reliable electricity
Program Director
Dr. Rod Brame
Dr. Roderic Brame holds a Ph.D. in Geosciences, M.S. in Science Education, Engineering Geosciences Certificate, and B.S in Geology. He has extensive experience in STEM Education and the integration of 21st Century technologies and skills.
Dr. Brame initiated Engineering and Robotics programs and clubs for Middle and High Schools and develops Robotics, Engineering, and CS curriculum for EDforTech. He developed and implemented STEM and STEM Education programs at universities and K-12 schools.
Program Goals
We are committed to educating Afghans in 21st Century Skills and Technologies for Engineering, Robotics, and Coding. Our goal is to educate and prepare Afghans for the technology, computer science, and STEM education workforce.
In our first year, we taught 118 students and prepared 18 teaching assistants, 73 students for the first course, and 45 students for the advanced 21st Century Skills course. Based on our current capacity our goal is to serve 200 students/year until schools, universities, and all STEM careers are available to all Afghans.
Your Support
We need WiFi/Internet! We need computers! We have been so successful that we have 50+ students in the 1st level course, 40+ students in the Advanced 21st Century Skills course, and 24 teaching assistants. We have exhausted the supply of computers and WiFi/Internet from CW4WAF.
We gratefully received 28 computers and WiFi/Internet access. We have 90+ students without either. We have a great start to helping Afghanistan build a modern workforce. The things we need are exactly what will help Afghanistan prepare such a workforce.
