
United States Embassy, Botswana partners with STEMi Makers of Africa to train Educators in STEM
The Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Innovation (STEMi) Makers of Africa partnered with the United States Embassy; Gaborone in Botswana to launch its e-STEM Integration and Development training of Educators in the Kweneng district of Botswana. Through the 2024/25 impact funding and support, 50 educators in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Science and Technical Drawing field across over 10 public schools in Kweneng district were trained in key STEM areas in order to build their teaching competency in:-
- Physical Computing,
- Coding and Robotics,
- Mechatronics,Â
- IOT and Embedded Systems,
- Project-based learning activities and samples for their classrooms.



The project is a four-phased initiative which kickstarted as a community mobilization and assessment in November  2024. Mid-level educators were selected across this district and shortlisted for an intensive 3-day workshop training to provide hands-on experiential learning activities, learning the foundation of robotics and coding, identifying environmental challenges that they can be solved with STEM and working together as they built sustainable prototypes. This strategy guaranteed that ideation in solving community challenges does not stop at design thinking, but the ability to apply the 4 integral C’s in STEM (collaboration of team, creativity, critical thinking and communicating effectively).
Through this partnership and support, educators were also provided teaching tools and STEMi microcontrollers to effectively integrate physical computing, IoT and project-based learning activities in their classrooms. After evaluation of educators’ performances in their schools, we will be hosting a regional e-STEM Competition where these educators will serve as mentors towards their students’ e-STEM showcase and environmental prototypes between the month of July and August 2025.



We will further assess the e-STEM projects projects achieved by their students and aligned to six (6) thematic areas:
- Sustainability & Environmental Stewardship,
- Powering my Community,
- Cyber-technology & Security,
- Biodiversity and Extinction,
- Green Food Nutrition and Consumption,
- Sustainable Transportation campaign.
The final phase will welcome the evaluation of 50 STEM clubs setup by the represented educators and schools. Â We extend our sincere appreciation to STEMi Makers of Africa coordinating team, our official partners like the United States Embassy; Botswana, the Regional Ministry of Education, Botswana, STEP UP Botswana, UNITAR and our technical partner – Taifetek Innovation hub – who supported our impact objective to accelerate educators with the 21st century skills and experiential learnings in STEM.