Despite poor funding, the students of Stefan Diaconescu high school in Potcoava, Romania, were achieving excellent results in regional and national robotics competitions.
The students at this high school have a high dropout rate. They often come from families with difficult financial situations, which is a contributing factor to not completing their studies. SI Slatina Club saw the potential and, given the high school’s good results in the field of robotics, thought that making the laboratory a point of attraction for students could help reverse the dropout trend in this poor region.
The project ‘Innovation, Robotics, Hope’ was launched! And the club proposed to equip the school robotics laboratory so that as many girls as possible could acquire skills in this field. SI Arendal-Grimstad Club in Norway provided the financial investment and SI Slatina arranged for the lab to be fully equipped with everything needed to carry out robotics activities.
Robotics is not in the school curriculum in high school, however, is aligned with Soroptimist’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programme. This form of hands-on and problem-solving learning has been linked to students showing improved success in their studies and careers. At Stefan Diaconescu high school it was clear just how committed the students were to robotics. A passionate team formed, guided by a dedicated physics teacher and the lab buzzed with a nucleus of students for whom robotics is a great passion.
Benefits went beyond the classroom. During COVID, a teacher taught online robotics lessons, in addition to other subjects on the curriculum. Thus, when the schools reopened, the students were already prepared to put what they learned into practice. Soroptimist also gained visibility in the community through press coverage of the project.
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The ‘Innovation, Robotics, Hope’ project started in September 2020 and will run until July 2023. So far, over 50 children have benefited from the equipped robotics lab, including many girls, who were attracted to the activity.
Fourteen high school girls are now trained in physics and robotics and the physics teacher tells us that more and more girls want to participate in activities in the robotics laboratory. It is an extraordinary fact, especially since most of the girls dedicate their own time to studying robotics and have a considerable commute by bus to and from school.
Victoria Ciucu – President of SI Club Slatina
Gratiela Popa – Programme director of SI Club Slatina
The benefits of STEM programmes are well documented and far-reaching. Get inspired by this article ‘Reshaping higher education’ and see how you can include STEM in your Soroptimist projects to help women and girls succeed in their studies and future careers.