STEM Space
Meet another winning team of Social Innovation Competition – Shalva Labadze and Shota Gengashvili who decided to offer LEGO education courses to pupils and, in this way, increase interest in vocational education and STEM disciplines. LEGO education courses will be hosted by the renovated and well-equipped building of GTU’s (Georgian Technical University) Technical Training Center. The Center will also collaborate with all interested schools and extend its practices.
Shalva Labadze and Shota Gengashvili tell us how they came up with the idea of creating STEM space. „We – Sahlva Labadze and Shota Gengashvili – graduates of GTU’s vocational program of Industrial Automation – are the authors of the initiative. Knowledge obtained as part of our studies as well as our work experience enabled us to select relevant courses and conduct teaching activities. During our studies, we had an opportunity to introduce our program to young people who came to the Center during the so-called “open lessons”. We have also participated in a number of exhibitions at which we had to promote the program by using machines and equipment. Both of us have participated in the international robotics competition in Turkey, which furthered our knowledge and experience. Vocational teachers Salome Oniani and Zurab Zedashidze – our teacher of short-term programs – will assist with the professional aspects of the course. Salome Oniani is actively involved in teaching at several educational institutions and participates in international projects. Zurab has recently joined our Center, and he is engaged in the implementation of short-term courses in industrial automation. Zurab has serious work experience and practical knowledge of managing a robotics club, which he obtained during his time at university. Besides, our team also includes students of GTU’s Faculty of Business Technologies – Lizi Chubinidze and Mikhail Chanturia, who help in the development of the business plan. When it comes to how and why we came up with this idea: we want to promote vocational education and raise interest in this direction. STEM is important for schoolchildren to flag and determines their interests. At the same time, this will facilitate the development of additional skills. Such experience may provide an incentive for others to come up with new ideas and join our social start-up as teachers. We will try to attract girls’ interest to counter certain stereotypes. It will be interesting to see the percentage of girls joining both LEGO educational courses and vocational programs. The project will support the popularization of vocational programs, particularly – vocational programs of engineering. Raising awareness among schoolchildren will facilitate informed decision making about post-school education.”