What is STEAM Venezuela?

It is a project that seeks to stimulate interest in STEAM disciplines in children and adolescents in Venezuela, using face-to-face, blended and distance learning modalities. This project also seeks to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals such as "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all".

STEAM is a didactic approach that addresses Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics for the development of skills in children and adolescents to face the challenges of the present and the future. It is based on the integration of skills, problem/project based learning, incorporating a playful and collaborative learning approach.

This initiative was born in Los Altos Mirandinos in April 2023. By July 2023, 26 people, including children and adolescents, have participated in our activities. The goal by the end of 2023 is to reach 80 participants and in 2024 double the number of students and enable distance learning classes.

By July 2023, 10 free demonstration workshops have been held to raise awareness of this STEAM educational project. We have also opened on-demand courses on introduction to programming for children and adolescents.

In the following link you can learn more about our project https://www.instagram.com/steam.vzla/

STEAM Venezuela and Web 3

Understanding the importance for our country to advance in the development of technological capabilities to provide our children and young people access to cutting-edge knowledge on topics such as decentralized finance, computer protocols, cryptography, we have decided to expand our training offerings to the topics listed above. Thanks to the relationship we have with schools and universities in the sector, as well as our internal experience in the educational field, we have defined the following planning.

The following is the educational classification of the people that we can approach during the third quarter of 2023 and until the second semester of 2024, the same will be done through alliances, agreements or agreements with public or private institutions of Los Altos Mirandinos and the Capital Region.

Operation of STEAM Venezuela STEAM is a self-financed project by its creators, currently operating from the Carrizal municipality of Miranda State, the team is made up of 2 founders, 1 manager and 4 people in academic functions, the number of teachers varies depending on the subject matter of the courses. The training activities are taught in a co-working space that is rented by the hour.

What will we do? During the second semester of 2023 we want to increase the STEAM training offer including topics associated with Web 3 technologies, we can achieve this by expanding the capacity of attention to children and adolescents of the Altos Mirandinos to expose them to the study of STEAM, expand the training offer and the modalities of study, both in the laboratory and in schools in the area.

When? In the second half of 2023 and first quarter of 2024.

How? Fostering of a STEAM Web3 community through visits and demonstration classes, meetings, discussions in educational centers, as well as workshops, courses and events in the STEAM laboratory.

Creation of digital dissemination channels, such as a website - virtual classroom and presence in social networks and messaging to inform about STEAM / Web 3 activities of interest in Altos Mirandinos and the rest of the country.

Why? This educational project seeks to have a positive impact on the new generations that are currently preparing for social, environmental, technological and economic challenges. This educational project seeks to contribute to UNESCO's sustainable development objectives, especially the following:

Objective 4 Quality education 4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of young people and adults who have the necessary skills, particularly technical and vocational, to access employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

Objective 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

https://www.undp.org/es/sustainable-development-goals

How much do we hope to raise? We aim to raise $21,131 USD, and thus directly impact a population of 650 people between the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024, the cost per participant is approximately $33 USD. However, the indirect impact this could bring to our environment could be much greater if we achieve the financial and logistical boost.

Among the financial elements with the greatest impact on operations are listed below:

Mobilization expenses, payment of facilitators, promotional campaigns in digital and conventional media in our geographical area. Rental of space to develop the activities. Purchase of hardware such as laptops, projector, 3D printer, robotics kits, among others. This equipment will be used for STEAM activities and normally has a gradual depreciation, its useful life is estimated between 18 to 24 months because it is highly manipulated by students and facilitators. It is estimated that this equipment will be used directly by about 100 people and indirectly by about 300 people during its useful life.

What are our costs and how will we use the funds?

The following are the activities where the cost structure is detailed

Strengthening of the STEAM laboratory in Altos Mirandinos 2023 In order to have safe, environmentally friendly and easily accessible facilities for the population, we propose a subproject for the acquisition of portable computer equipment, projector, 3D printer and robotics kits, to generate greater independence of the rented services currently available and thus expand the capacity to serve participants, the mobility of the equipment in the Altos Mirandinos.

Deployment of Virtual Classroom With the intention of expanding the radius of action, a virtual classroom will be created with educational resources complementary to the face-to-face sessions, related to STEAM and Web 3 disciplines, where the members of the community will have access to educational and informative material, as well as project offers related to the aforementioned topics. These activities include the design of a website, a virtual classroom and the initial development of the content of 3 courses associated with STEAM and Web 3 for teenagers and young university students.

Conformation of STEAM Web 3 community in Altos Mirandinos 2023

A. Conduct free demonstration classes on Web 3 disciplines in elementary and middle schools, to encourage interest in Web 3 areas, as well as programming, robotics, science and others related to STEAM.

B. Generate a space to offer technical and functional training on web 3 technologies for developers, implementers and the general public. These trainings will take place in university spaces and/or in a laboratory equipped with internet access, projector and at least 7 computers. Likewise, through these trainings, development projects on the blockchain and web3 ecosystem can be addressed.

C. With the intention of reaching out to people currently excluded by financial constraints, we wish to offer a scholarship mechanism of 100% of the tuition of our paid courses, and thereby overcome these barriers that prevent access to our STEAM courses. In order to provide opportunities for STEAM training to low-income students in popular sectors.

The groups of people we will be approaching are as follows

Kids from 8 to 11 years old Teenagers between 12 and 17 years old University students, from careers associated with computer science, systems or related careers. Professionals or technicians in the area of systems or computer science who wish to learn about blockchain, smart contract programming, NFT among other related topics.

The training that we will be addressing according to the audience is as follows: Blockchain Web 3 Wallets Programming with Solidity NFT

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How will you see the impact of this grant?

Surveys will be carried out to assess the opinions of the attendees on our activities, and these will serve as input for reports on results and impact that will be published regularly through our information channels.

We will make a photographic record of the on-site events, broadcasting live as many of them as possible.

Each activity will have a poap that will be minted by all attendees. We are exploring the possibility of creating hypercert NFTs or dynamic NFTs to leave a better record of our impact for all our donors.

What happens if we don't reach our goal? We will not stop there, we will continue working with the human resources we currently have and we will participate in other fundraising rounds in the future.

How can we reach this goal? The best way is with your help! To support us you don't need to donate a large amount of money, with just $5 you are already contributing enormously to our goal.

You could help us a lot by donating and sharing this campaign with your friends!

Training programs to be developed

A. Programming for children Introductory level A and B

B. Video game programming for girls and boys Basic level A and B Advanced level A and B

C. Programming with Python for teenagers Introductory level Basic level A and B Intermediate level A and B

D. Robotics for girls and boys Basic level A and B Intermediate level A and B

E. Automation for adolescents

F. Video game programming for teenagers

G. Technological literacy Office automation

H. Web page programming

I. App programming for teenagers

J. Graphic design for teenagers

K. Earth Science

L. Digital Music Composition

M. 3D Printing

N. Basic computer support

Ñ. Introduction to GNU/Linux desktop

O. Introduction to digital music analysis and composition

Programs for adults

A. Linux Server Administrator

B. Python for adults

Ñ. Introduction to the GNU/Linux desktop

O. Introduction to digital music analysis and composition

Programs for adults

A. Linux Server Administrator

B. Python for adults

C. Databases PostgreSQL Databases MySQL databases MongoDB databases

How do you see the STEAM Venezuela community at the end of this year? We aspire to reach a population of around 650 people as direct beneficiaries between our demo workshops, courses, talks and STEAM events.

What other communities or relevant projects in the ecosystem have we interacted with?
We have had the opportunity to share with the Refi Venezuela community.

What do we do if we receive more than we ask for? In case we receive more funding than expected, we will increase the number of scholarships to deliver, we would do more activities and we will certainly strive to directly impact the lives of more people.