Five hundred schools in the United Kingdom will soon receive educational resource packs including a Science Set, made by Ghanaian startup, Dext Technology Limited.

The move is a collaboration between the Ghanaian company and the Royal Academy of Engineering with support from Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund.

The Science Set is a practical science laboratory that has been made small enough to fit in students’ bags and on the desks to enhance the understanding of science courses.

The Resource Box as it is called is expected to help build the capacity of students’ creativity and introduce them to a problem-solving approach as well as innovation for education in basic schools.

It will also be used to teach students about smart homes, green energy, electronics and vertical farming.

The Box

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation Resource Box has tools that help teachers introduce students to important concepts relevant to the 21st-century learner.

The box contains two Dext Science Sets, a supercapacitor, solar panels, materials for building a robot car, motors, materials to build a manual and electric water pump as well as other electronic components.

They can also be used to perform activities in wind power generation with lessons on the environment, plastics and vertical farming.

There will be one of these resource packs in all 500 schools with plans to increase this number as teachers and students discover its benefits.

“It is our desire to get this kind of kits to schools in Africa and all across the world,” Co-founder, Charles Ofori-Antipem, hopes.

The project

The goal of the project is to show teachers what available resources can inspire young students to take on engineering and create solution for the world’s problems.

The project will use finalist in the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation to illustrate how engineering is used to solve problems.

The beneficial projects to be used include Smart Havens Africa by Anne Rweyora, Majik Water by Beth Koigi, SolarKoodo by Safiatou Nana, The Vertical Farm by Paul Matovu, Elo-Cart by Kenneth Guantai and Muzikol by Nges Njungle.

After a series of discussions and assessment of what Dext Technology had to offer, PR Manager Caleb Fugah, in a statement said, “We were contracted to supply our internationally accepted award-winning Science Sets together with extra resources that can be used to teach fundamental 21st-century skills in 500 schools across the UK.“

He continues that, “as part of the collaboration we were tasked to design activities and lessons that will enable the effective use of these resources. “

Why Dext?

The innovation by Dext Technology Limited, The Science Set, is one of the leading African EduTech innovation startups effecting change in STEM education in Africa.

The SCIENCE SET provides the most cost-effective and least intimidating way to introduce students to innovation, problem solving and technology.

In addition to this, the innovators use a very agile design process enabled by 3D printing and laser cutting to quickly prototype and redesign material to make them cost effective and easy to use.

“Furthermore, our flexibility as a company enabled us to work together with the Royal Academy of Engineering to design lessons and activities they were engaging and pedagogically rigorous,” Mr Fugah added.

Dext Technology

Dext Technology is a Ghanaian start-up based in Kumasi in the Ashanti region that develops tools for the effective teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Our vision is to bring students a 21st-century education that focuses on problem solving, innovation and creativity.

The science set, was adjudged the most innovative education solution on the continent by the African Union in 2018.

It recently won the ultimate prize at the MTN Heroes of Change.