Help girls change the world

It is often said that the future rests in the hands of our youth. But if we expect today’s youth to have a positive impact, we need to do more to empower them.

This is especially true in a country like Panama, and even more true for girls living in rural areas of Panama.

So how do we cultivate curiosity, critical thinking, and instill the confidence they will need to overcome obstacles like poverty and patriarchy? The answer is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math).

Panama is a country full of motivated young female minds ready to change the world, but without access to basic education, let alone an educational environment that cultivates curiosity and encourages skills like critical thinking, they may never realize their full potential. Girls in STEM, is a program working to change this.

The program aims to help girls the build confidence they will need to flourish in male-dominated fields like science and math by arming them with skills like curiosity, scientific method, knowledge of conservation and familiarity of microscopes.

Girls in STEM is empowering elementary school girls to embrace an interest in STEM fields, which have historically been dominated by men, with 3-day workshops lead by female scientists. The workshops focus on teaching girls hypothesize, experiment and analyze and to present their this data and their conclusions. 

Last year workshops focused on mammal tracks and learning to use microscopes, while this year workshops will teach students about testing water quality, renewable energy, and the habitat of leaf-cutter ants. In the leaf-cutter ant workshop, students will build robots to teach about how the species map their environment to avoid predators, work as a team, search for food and protect their queen. The girls build the robots in teams of 3 or 4 learning skills like teamwork and cooperation. 

While each STEM workshop is unique, they all work towards a greater goal of showing girls that science, technology, engineering, and math can help their communities and change lives. By igniting a thirst for knowledge and understanding in over 250+ students, with each workshop comes the chance for a brighter future, not only for the girls involved, but for the country of Panama. Help these girls change the world. 

How you can help:

1) A monetary donation 

A monetary donation can be made in any amount via PayPal at conservacionpanamaca.org/.
The cost of a workshop is approximately $10.50 a student. Each 3- day multi-school program aims to engage approximately 250 students, so the cost to fund an entire workshop is $2,625.00  

2) Donate supplies 
If you’re making an Amazon order this holiday season you might want to consider adding one of these items to your shopping cart! The kits range from $40 - $100. 

FoldScope Deluxe Kit ($40) These kits are for teachers or group leaders. It includes not only the foldscope but a full kit for specimen and data collection.  For the 2019 workshop season, we estimate a need of 50 Deluxe kits.

Ozobot Robot Kit ($88.50) This is a small programmable robot we are planning to use to teach students about Ant colony organization. Each individual robot follows pre-programmable instructions by drawing on the floor/paper with reusable markers. The team estimates a total of 30 bots are needed. 

KNex building kits are designed to teach the students a little about Engineering and renewable energy. Each kit listed below is reusable and can serve about 4 students working in groups. The 2019 workshops will require about 10-15 kits. The Kits needed are: 

Kit 1: Solar Energy Build 

Kit 2: DNA Build kit

Kit 3: Bridge Build Kit

Kit 4: Roller Coaster Build 

The final workshop of the year will be teaching students a little about basic chemistry and water quality monitoring in their local communities. This year-long project works in collecting data and analyzing that data over 10 testing periods throughout the year, introducing the idea of water quality monitoring for community health. Here is what is needed: 

Advanced Sampling kit

Advanced Water Monitoring Kit

These kits can be purchased on Amazon Here ($43.45) and here ($215.29). about 30 of each kit are needed. 

All the products above were chosen because directions, learning and education resources are available in Spanish. 

Conservacion Panama Inc. is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) NGO. Their mission is Conservation, Management & Community. Here is their missions statement: In a rapidly changing world, we are in a unique position to excel in the responsible development of our local urban, suburban and rural communities. Our organization strives to assist in conservation & management of all natural resources with the leadership of local Panamanian communities from within.

Speak with Ezekiel Jakub of Conservacion Panama by writing ezekieljakub@conservacionpanamaca.org for more information