KAWA Uganda

This report brings out the experience shared by Ronald Ddungu, the former Deputy Headteacher of St. Mary’s College Kisubi and Gayaza High School on Project Based Learning Opportunities.

Ddungu notes that though many schools have received computers from Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) and from the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), it remains a big question on how the schools are optimally using these computers beyond teaching computer studies and ICT to students.

He informed the participants that as a person, he advocates for at least one computer per school and for community development by schools. Schools need to take care of the challenges of the community and find solutions to these challenges. Schools must open themselves and interact with the community.

He sighted the example of his former school, Gayaza High School which does a number of community projects including one where students go and teach at a nearby primary school.

He challenged the participants to take the computer studies and ICT knowledge outside class to solve community challenges.

As a way of motivating the participants to come up and implement community projects, he showed them a video clip of his pitch at the Microsoft Pitch Competition in Barcelona, Spain in March 2014, where he won US$15,000 for his school which was used to start the E-market library project. The E-market library is an online portal of best practices with links to videos showing production processes of small-scale local enterprises in Uganda.

The 2-year (2014-2015) E-market project had the following objectives:

• To document the detailed processes of production using photos and videos.
• To create simple business cards, flyers, receipt books and invoices that would be used by community members to market their products.
• To help market the local enterprises locally and globally through blog writing (http://emarketlibrary.wordpress.com/blog/ and creation of websites.
• To organize a trade fair where the local enterprises would be showcased to the public.

The students identified and worked with a number of local enterprises including:

• Mayambala Poultry Enterprise which sells eggs and (1day -3 weeks) chicks.
• Standard Mushroom Growers which sells fresh and dry mushrooms.
• Madina Poultry Farm which sells eggs and Kuroilers for meat.
• Women and Elderly Development Concerns which makes and sells bags, pencil cases, wall mats, counter books, Kangas "lesu, tie and dye clothes and baskets.
• Spotless Wash Liquid Soap which makes and sells liquid soap
• Muwonge's Farm which does cattle zero grazing, poultry (geese in particular), goat keeping, dog breeding and banana growing.
• Natural feeds which mixes and sells poultry feeds
• Kay-kay confectionary which bakes and sells cakes for different occasions
• Ritah's Rabbitry which keeps and sells rabbits
• Jewelry Business

The project started off with the training of the teachers who were to lead and support the activities of the student teams.

Each student team worked with a particular local enterprise and carried out a number of activities:

1. Students in each team shared out responsibilities; photographer, videographer; secretary, typist, narrator and project leader
2. Made field visits to their local enterprises. During the first field visit, the team shared its marketing plan with the entrepreneur asking for feedback from the entrepreneur to make him part and parcel of the project.
3. The teams filmed and photographed every field visit and shared these with the other teams.
4. Using the information collected during the field visits, each team designed a flyer, receipt and invoice books for their enterprise.
5. Each team member sent a flyer to their parents and relatives inviting them to a trade fair (exhibition) that happened on the Independence Day “ 9^th Oct 2014 at the school.
6. The teams worked with the entrepreneurs to plan for the exhibition including the infrastructural needs for the stalls and the items to be carried to the exhibition grounds.
7. During the trade fair (exhibition), the student teams worked hand in hand with the entrepreneurs to showcase their enterprises to the public.

Ddungu Ronald then showed the participants a video recording of the trade fair (exhibition), the student teams did with the entrepreneurs to showcasing of the local enterprises. The trade fair was hosted by the school- Gayaza High School.

He further informed the participants, that the school used part of the money they had got for the E-market project to start the GREATER (Get Rich Education & Accomplishment Through Entrepreneurship Research) Gayaza Project.

In the GREATER Gayaza project, student teams which had to include at least one teacher made business proposals to setup business companies run by the students at Gayaza High School. The business proposal had to show:

• Relevancy of ICT in the business
• Relevancy in any subject or curriculum area
• Feasibility of the business thus the ability of the business to sustain itself and to make profit
• Activities that the students would engage in to develop the right skills.

Twenty-three student teams registered, and they were given training in business plan development.

The "Company Directors then pitched their projects at the pitch event which was held at Gayaza High School on 28^th June 2015 to compete for UGX 500,000 /= (US$200) as starting capital for their businesses. The pitch event was attended by parents and judges were drawn from the field of entrepreneurship. The parents pledged to support all the teams even those who did not merit funding from the school.

He then showed a video recording of one of the student teams pitching their business proposal.

The student companies periodically reported to the school on their progress and outcomes.

Ddungu asked the participants to reflect on the curriculum -related project he had just shared using the following guiding questions:

Q1. What learning do students get from curriculum-related project which they would otherwise not get from normal class work?

Responses:

• Interaction and socialization with other people in the community
• Positive attitude towards business work.
• Real life skills needed in the world of work and business
• Team work and collaboration
• Emotional intelligence
• Appreciating and paying more attention to what they are taught in class having seen it applicable in the field.
• Realizing and learning the language used by customers
• Customer care

Q2. What would be some of the challenges of implementing project-based learning in our schools and the possible solutions to those challenges?

Response: A number of school administrators are just interested at the number of 1^st grades the students get at the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB) exams and would perceive project-based learning as a waste of time. There is need to do projects which originate from the curriculum areas and to sensitize school administrators about project-based learning as a method of teaching.

Q3. What would you say if someone asked you; "What is project-based learning?

Responses:

• You identify an activity that can provide a hands-on for the students so that they can do and in so doing they learn.
• You identify an activity, go beyond what you do in the classroom and reach the community outside school.
• Identify a challenge in the community, look at what you teach and come up with what you can do with your students to solve the community challenge.

As a way of harmonizing, Ddungu told the participants that project-based learning is a teaching method where students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time on a project. He outlined some of the key elements of project-based learning which included:

• Is organized around an open-ended driving question or challenge: This focusses the students.
• Is student-centred: The students engage in design, problem- solving, decision making, investigative activities, and reflection.
• Is authentic: It addresses a real-life problem or issue
• A student-created final product which must be presented to a real audience.

He encouraged the participants to appreciate the value of projects, collaboration and interpreting what they teach so that to equip students with skills they will use in their lives after school.

Ddungu shared with the workshop participants the process he has been using to teach students Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Mobile App Development:

Step 1: The students working in groups brainstorm and share ideas on societal challenges and select the challenges/problems to develop a Mobile App on.

Step 2: The students do Internet research to discover the gaps in the available technology solutions.

Step 3: The students make skits to help them understand in detail the problems they want to address with the Mobile Apps.

Step 4: The students develop prototypes which help them to design well thought out technology solutions.

Step 5: The students then start coding using MIT App Inventor which is free software. They use videos on YouTube to learn how to use the software.

Step 6: The students build business teams with business plans.

Step 7: The student teams then pitch their business ideas.

He then showed participants two video clips showing the process, his students went through when developing a Mobile App on Gender-based violence and another on agriculture.

Ddungu Ronald informed the participants that his GREATER Gayaza High School had also designed a School Agricultural Education Program that empowers students with basic agricultural skills through activities that take students out of their classrooms to work with the school farm.

The teachers and students are trained and allowed to produce and sell to the school.

• Senior One students are engaged in horticulture. They grow vegetables which they later sell to the school dining room or to the parents on visiting days.
• Senior Two students work on the dairy unit and learn how to feed, milk and look after the dairy animals.
• Senior Three students are introduced to poultry management practices. They work on the poultry unit feeding the birds, carrying out different vaccinations, collecting eggs and keeping farm records.

Every (Aug “ Sept) holiday since 2014, the school organizes a farm camp with support from different stakeholders for schools where they share their experiences and enable students and teachers from other schools to train on the school resources. During the farm camp, the school also organizes study visits to great farmers for inspiration and to learn from their growth stories.

The 4^th Annual School Farm Camp was held (25^th -31^st) Aug 2017 with the theme "Skilling Youth in Agri-business in Tune with Wildlife Conservation. It was attended by over 700 participants with each school sending one teacher and five students.