Georgetown: With assistance from First Lady Sandra Granger and a number of local and diaspora sponsors, Guyanese youth will be treated to a robotics camp between July 21 and August 1. The first camp will be held at the St Rose’s High School on July 21 at 10:00hrs. Additional camps will be held at St Rose’s High and the Queen’s College during the week of July 25, and others are scheduled for the Buxton and Lusignan areas during the week of August 1.
The STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) team will arrive in Guyana next week. Their first engagement will be on July 19, when they will host a workshop for community groups interested in creating STEM clubs.
That meeting will be followed by a July 20 workshop at St Rose’s High School for camp volunteers. That workshop will run for five hours from 10:00hrs.
The camp will be facilitated, in part, by two of the Christian siblings.
The U.S.-born Christian siblings- Ima, Asha, Caleb, and Joshua – have spent many summers in Guyana. Their parents, former national team basketball players Karen Abrams and Leon Christian, have kept them involved in and with this country.
Since emigrating, the Christian parents have never allowed distance to hamper their contributions to Guyana, whether through representing the country in several Caribbean basketball championships; investing in a local business; contributing to local civic efforts; or now inspiring their children to share their technological knowledge with local students in Guyana.
The husband and wife team feels a strong sense of duty to contribute to the development of Guyana.
“After Ima and Asha expressed their interest in a technology camp in Guyana, I shared the idea with the First Lady Sandra Granger during her 2016 trip to Georgia, USA,” Karen Abrams said.
First Lady Granger reached out to the Christian parents for an update some time ago. “I was amazed at her enthusiasm and willingness to help. Her outreach sealed the deal,” Ms Abrams said in praise.
It was then that Karen phoned her friend, Dr Terrence Blackman, the chair of the Mathematic Department at Medgar Evers College, telling him about the proposed programme.
“He had already been a part of a planning committee for a maths camp at Queen’s College, so he suggested that we join forces, and we did,” Karen continued.
It took only one more call to a generous benefactor, and all of the locations were organised. “We have been extremely lucky to have received the overwhelming support that we did. For that we are grateful,” Karen added.
The Christian children followed in the footsteps of their parents, who worked in the U.S.’s technology industry, being exposed to Lego Robotics building as well as work with the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
That background paid off when they used their technical knowledge to Google-search their way through the creation of a mobile app called Five-O, which was created to allow citizens to rate, review, and track their interactions with law-enforcement officers all across the United States.
The team won national and international attention for their work on Five-O, but more importantly, they knew that it was necessary for them to pass on what they had learned along the way.
Ima, 18 and in her second year at Stanford University, and Asha, 17 and a MIT Mite alumna, took the lead to design an introductory Lego Robotics curriculum which will focus on careers in technology, how robots are used in the world today, applications of robot technology in the Guyanese society, and the fundamentals of building and programming Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots.
“Lego Robotics is quite popular in the United States and across all levels of school from K-12 to university level,” said Ima.
While Caleb believes, “Lego Robotics is a fun and multi-disciplinary approach to teaching programming concepts and reinforcing concepts such as determination, creativity, innovation and problem-solving which young people need to be successful in all industries.”
Planning for the camp has been non-stop work, but the organising team anticipates the interaction with students and adults interested in setting up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) clubs in Guyana.
The project was generously boosted by a donation of US$8,000 contribution from the diaspora. That money was used to purchase robots and supplies for the camp.
Other contributors include Guyana’s Noble House Seafood; Backyard Barbecue and Grill; Churches Chicken Guyana; Bruster’s Guyana; Metro Office and Computer Supplies; Nigel Hughes; R&S Fishing; Lusignan-Good Hope Learning Centre; Friendship Primary School; and Herdmanston Lodge.
Both the Ministry of Education and the Public Telecommunications Ministry have lent their support to the initiative.
Karen also underscored the support of Arnon Adams, Vidyaratha Kissoon, Lance Hinds; Director of Sport, Christopher Jones; and Education Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine.
In the Diaspora, Caribbean International Shipping of Lithonia, Georgia, and the New York-based non-profit organisation Guyana Action Committee were also extremely generous with their support.
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