YouTeach Science Van

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YouTeach Science Van is a science fair on wheels! Students at low income schools create engaging science experiments that go on the science van tour. At each stop, students engage the public in "playing science".

Standings & Awards

279 out of 591 in Africa
408 out of 779 in Education
488 out of 573 in Pilot
367 out of 992 in Charitable
1525 out of 4003 Overall

10

VOTES

YouTeach

The Science Van turns students into active,passionate learners in schools,where nobody cares about "educating"

A major problem in Egypt is the low quality of elementary education. Teachers and exams depend on memorizing textbooks and teaching methods driving the innovative side of the students especially in science subjects are totally absent. This results in students being only “receivers” of knowledge, not “creators”. The problem gets worse in low-income governmental schools (by far the most common type of schools in Egypt). With under-qualified teachers, huge number of students and extremely low budget for any equipments, students have no access to quality education.

YouTeach Science Van project addresses this problem in an innovative way, that was never implemented in Egypt previously.

YouTeach Science Van project consists of 3 main phases:

The first phase is giving students (age group: 11- 15 years) a series of very interactive workshops under the title "Let's play science differently". These workshops teach them how to think critically about what they learn, apply their creative thinking and introduce them to the "Scientific Method".
After that, students have one month time to choose a scientific topic they find interesting, and turn it into an experiment that simply visualizes this concept and makes it easy and interesting to understand by anyone. The best experiments (around 25) are selected to go on the Science Van.
The high-point of the project is the science van tour. The selected experiments are all put on a van to form a traveling science fair. The van travels with the experiments, our team and the students on board around the city of Alexandria, and stops at different public places for 1-2 days each. During these days, students engage the public in trying out the experiments and explain them the scientific concept behind it. At the final day of the tour, a jury consisting of educational specialists selects the top three experiments. The winners receive awards during a closing ceremony.

The complete project cycle is repeated twice during an academic year.

Roadmap to Success Optional (1 - 3 minutes to upload)

Roadmap to Success:

roadmap_to_success.pdf

Sponsors, Investors, and Supporters

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

YouTeach Science Van improves science education in low-income schools by first showing students the "recipe" to thinking creatively about science.We then let them practice by turning scientific concepts into engaging experiments. Finally they experience the rewarding feeling of being active learners by participating in the science van tour where they engage other people in science using their own experiments, hence spreading the culture of the innovative approach to education among Egyptians.

2. Who gains the most?

1. School Students:YouTeach changes the educational experience to being: interactive and innovative, independent from unqualified school teachers, student driven, free high quality educational materials. 2. Teachers: During the whole project, we are trying to involve current teachers, to inspire them to change their teaching methods and adopt these innovative ones. 3. The wide public: During the Science Van Tour, the public is introduced to a this new innovative approach to education

3. Who pays?

A smaller percentage of the schools we work with are private schools. Those schools pay fees to participate in the Science Van round. In return they get strong marketing and higher ranking than other private schools, specially if their students reach on of the top three places. With the money of one private school, we are able to include 2 low-income schools. Furthermore, the awards given to the winning students at the end of the van tour are sponsored by science shops in Alexandria.

4. What is your success?

Short term success (1year) - Launching two rounds of the Science van, that were in at least 3 different public places each time. - By the second round, the number of the participating schools in the Science Van should increase by 200%. Long term success: -The Youteach Science Vans are being implemented in various cities and also rural areas with a big number of participating students. -The YouTeach new "philosophy of teaching" has been adopted by various schools and teachers

5. How will you do it?

Create a network of the participating students, as some of them could be mentors for younger students in the next round of the project. Expand our network of schools with each round. Include workshops for teachers on innovative teaching methods. Partner with educational institutions to continuously expand the workshop's curriculum and localize it for the different student groups we work with(different social, financial,education backgrounds). Add advanced levels for our alumni.