Ministry: Island Wide Initiative In STEM Education
The Ministry of Education is advising the public of the “islandwide initiative to improve STEM Education with LINGO STEM Coding Kit Lessons.”
A Government spokesperson said, “Commencing with the Dual Enrolment students under the leadership of Instructor Joseph Weeks, The Ministry of Education’s goal is to provide every senior school student in Bermuda with LINGO lessons to inspire a new generation of STEM professionals.
“All of Bermuda’s senior school students will soon have an opportunity to improve their science, technology, engineering, and math [STEM] skills with LINGO STEM coding kit lessons, as the result of a successful pilot program commissioned by the Bermuda Ministry of Education.
“During Fall semester 2021, under the leadership of Mr. Joseph Weeks, 20 senior school dual enrolment students used LINGO’s “In the Driver’s Seat” STEM Coding kit to learn hardware and software principles by building a backup sensor for a driverless car. The pilot worked so well that it has provoked planning to provide every senior student on the island with the “In the Driver’s Seat” lesson and the initial student group with additional LINGO lessons including Variables, Loops, and Conditions.
Minister of Education Diallo Rabain stated, “The STEM Coding Kit program is an outstanding opportunity for our young people to engage directly with new generation technology. This initiative will see our high school students benefitting from international expertise, and grounded with a strong foundation in coding systems that will make them competitive in various STEM industries.”
The Department of Education’s Director of Academics, Dr. Lew Simmons said, “Engaging and interactive STEM educational experiences are essential for our students to compete internationally and for Bermuda to excel in terms of academia and workforce. LINGO’s STEM lessons turned what has traditionally been a non-engaging class into one that the students look forward to attending. As we design and develop our Signature STEM school, we want all of Bermuda’s senior school students to share this same enthusiasm and intend to do our part to achieve this in partnership with the LINGO team.”
17-year-old Cairo Simmons, a dual enrolment student with CedarBridge Academy and Bermuda College was introduced to the Driver Seat Backup Sensor. He stated, “Due to my prior knowledge of computer hardware and programming, I felt it was very easy for me to assemble and program this sensor. Upon the completion of its assembly, my interest grew in how I can use this technology to further build other modifications of vehicles. What I found especially interesting is how computers are becoming smaller and smaller today and how the world is pushing for electrical cars, thus this technology will be more useful.”
LINGO founder Aisha Bowe said, “It is our honor to be part of Bermuda’s important initiative to provide their students with a scalable, sustainable, and engaging STEM solution that not only builds confidence but also has the potential to inspire a new generation of engineers, scientists, and mathematicians. Our team continues to build new content to keep young minds interested in STEM and applying their learnings to contributing to a bright future.”
About the Bermuda Ministry of Education STEM Initiative
“LINGO STEM Lessons are created by an experienced team of engineers and veteran K-12 educators led by former NASA aerospace engineer and CEO Ms. Aisha Bowe, whose family is from the Caribbean. LINGO is used by more than 4,000 students in 11 countries including nationwide in the United States. The kit includes an electronic kit that can be used for all lessons and access to an online portal with expertly guided videos, in addition, to supporting the remote learning challenges of the pandemic.
“The lessons empower teachers to easily instruct STEM remotely, make lab work at home possible, and enable students to study STEM principles at their own pace. At the end of each project, students will have gained confidence and an understanding of coding concepts. LINGO lessons can be used as part of the core curriculum or as a supplementary enrichment tool for science classes and after-school science programs for students, middle school through sophomore year in college.
“The Department of Education would like to thank Aisha Bowe, Joseph Weeks, and the entire team working on this project. A special thank you to Dr. Jarvis Sulcer for proposing LINGO to the Department of Education as an extension of the STEM project in BAHAMAS.
“For more information: www.stemlingo.com.”
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