Elimisha Msichana Elimisha Jamii na Astronomia (Educate a Girl Educate the entire Community with Astronomy)

Due to several socio-economic issues such as early marriages, teenage pregnancies & poverty, schoolgirl dropout rates are high in rural areas of Kenya & Uganda during the primary-to-secondary transitions. EMEJA aims to address these issues via Astronomy outreach programmes, mentorship, & targeted STEM workshops and scholarships opportunities. These are guided & supported by long-term student tracking & monitoring to ensure that schoolgirls in these regions complete secondary education. In a span of 3 years, we aim to reach over 5,000 schoolgirls (11-19yr olds) in ~50 schools through:

I.Mentorship & outreach: EMEJA will mentor and support girls in their final year of primary education through Astronomy outreach. During these events, we shall highlight & discuss positive ways the community can tackle some of these socio-economic issues e.g., teenage pregnancies.

II.Tracking & long-term monitoring: To ensure a 100% primary-secondary education transition, each EMEJA Mentee will be paired with a lifelong mentor-followed by long term tracking & monitoring throughout high school-via regular phone calls and one-on-one events. Mentors are local college/university educated young women (see no. 9a).

III.Astro-STEM Workshops & Mentorship: provide intensive astronomy themed workshops targeting Years 1&2 female students in high school. Aims; i) Change STEM misconceptions & promote early participation of girls in sciences, improve grades, increase number of girls selecting Physics & sitting for the Physics national examination; ii). Long term-development & creation of resources for these schools, (particularly in Physics labs).

IV.Computer Literacy:. Aims; i) create computer literacy among these populations by offering introduction to hands-on computing during Astro-STEM workshops; ii) develop & create computer resources.

V.EMEJA tuition fee scholarship: sponsor girls from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who would otherwise fail to enroll for secondary education.

 

Outcomes

I. Astro-STEM Workshops and Mentorship:
-There was a massive improvement in the Physics and Geography grades across the schools:
a) St. Peters Girls
Physics:
-For Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.8/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 4.3/12.
-For Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score =4.0/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 6.2/12.
– For the first time, Physics (and across the entire school) was the best performing subject in this class (Year II).
-Number of girls selecting Physics in the coming Year III (2024) by the Year IIs, increased from 9 in 2022 to 13 in 2023. These girls will sit for the Physics examination in the national examinations at the end of secondary school education.

Geography (covers Astronomy topics):
-For Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.5/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 5.1/12.
-For Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score =3.1/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 5.4/12.

a) UPEC Girls Osorongai:
Physics:
-For Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.9/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 4.7/12.
-For Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM)
-3/25 female students in Year II selected Physics for Year III (2024), up from only 1 student in 2022.

Geography:
-Year I: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM), mean score = 2.8/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score =3.3/12.
-Year II: Term 2 (before Astro-STEM) mean score = 3.2/12. Term 3 (after Astro-STEM), mean score = 3.5/12.
-Using the Astro-STEM quizzes provided to the students before and after Astro-STEM, the students showed >80% improvement in the understanding of the topics covered during the workshop.

II. Outreach and Mentorship: It is slightly difficult to quantify the outcome of this programme as it is more of a behavioral change/outcome.
~420 schoolgirls and their parents/teachers introduced to Astronomy and famous Women in Astronomy/Physics/STEM.
-The 420 school girls (KCPE-341 & UCPE-79 candidates, 2023 Cohort) will be paired with personal mentors in January 2024, to be followed by long-term tracking and monitoring and continued mentorship throughout high school (for 4 years) by the mentors.
-The community (education officers, teacher and parents) are reporting a remarkable increase in the number of girls enrolling for secondary education in the region lately. And also the programme appears to have capped school absenteeism amongst girls.

III. Tracking and long term monitoring: largely still in progress.
a) 2019 Cohort – ~200/228 girls in Year IV girls tracked from 2020-2023. Just completed secondary education. The first EMEJA cohort to go through full 4 years of tracking and long-term monitoring throughout high school. We will be providing the percentage of mentors that actually completed secondary school in due course.
b) 2020 Cohort – ~250/276 girls in Year III. Tracked from 2021. Expected completion date is 2024.
c) 2022 Cohort – ~300/380 girls in Year I. Tracked from 2023. Expected completion date is 2026.

IV. EMEJA Tuition fee scholarship:  managed to keep 4 students in school.

V. Computer Literacy programme: 17 computers donated to 4 schools to date.
1.  ~98% of the students introduced to computers, had never used a computer before.
2. Igikiro Mixed day school, UPEC Girls and St. Peters have now created spaces for computer laboratories and as a result of these computers, are now offering Computer Studies (as part of the curriculum for secondary education) to their students. It is important to highlight that before this computer literacy programme, the schools were not offering this subject to their students due to lack of computers.