Science, technology to drive world’s economic future – NASA Expert
Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a NASA Senior Robotics Engineer, has said the future of the world’s economy would be propelled by Science and Technology hence the need to equip and expose the youth to it from the onset.
He said this during a two-day workshop aimed at promoting hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education among junior and senior high school girl students has ended in Tamale.
The event was organised by the United States Embassy in Accra in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) for about 13 Senior High Schools Science clubs from the three Northern Regions.
Two American science educators, Dr Kimberly Brown and Dr Claudia Morrell, shared mentoring suggestions and teaching techniques with Ghanaian educators and lead activities with the participants to peak their interest and encourage further exploration.
As part of the workshop a Robotics Inspired Science Education (RISE II) competition was organised where the schools compete with each other in building robots with expert instruction from NASA Senior Robotics Engineer Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu.
Dr Trebi-Ollennu said the initiative placed emphasis on transforming the learning experience to application adding that it would help develop their creative and thinking ability
He explained that RISE II encouraged teachers and students to strategise, design, build, program and test an autonomous robot to solve defined real world problems.
“With this students are able to develop leadership skills, self-confidence, presentation and communication skills, through the experience of Robotics competitions,” he said.
Source: GNA