STEM Education
Liberia Institute for Girls - Todee
The Liberia Institute for Girls - Todee (LIG) project seeks to leapfrog a cluster of young women and girls in the Todee region of Liberia into the fast-paced, information-driven, knowledge economy, while enhancing small enterprise development in the region as a catalyst for sustainable development. Women and girls empowerment is the underlying goal of the LIG initiative. The Liberia Institute for Girls - Todee (LIG) project will begin with a K-6 STEM academy, LIG Elementary, which will be an interdisciplinary curriculum focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fundamentals.
LIG Elementary will focus on not only academic achievement, but social-emotional, and physical well-being too.
Academic Goal: The LIG academic program provides students with a challenging, integrated curriculum focused on STEM; instilling evidence-based thinking, reasoning, teamwork and creative skills that students can utilize in their daily lives.
Technology Goal: The LIG technology will help students build skills that enable them to transfer technology knowledge from the known to the unknown; providing opportunity for students to participate in exploration, collect information to solve problems, conduct scientific investigation, create designs, discover new worlds and appreciate STEM.
Health & Well-being Goal: The LIG's health and sports program aimed at optimizing physical health, raising spirits and self-esteem, improving academic performance and inspiring lifelong habits of healthy living. Exercise will be promoted as any regular physical routine that students can enjoy doing within the confines of the LIG campus or under adult supervision. As early as possible the LIG will incorporate an in-school health clinic with a nurse who may also be part of the teaching staff.
Liberia Institute for Girls: Learning Lab
In 2021, the U.S. Embassy in Liberia awarded a $20,000 grant to supplement a $40,000 budget for a science & environmental learning lab, as a subset of the LIG. About 243 students from across Pleemu Clan in Todee district attend the learning lab. The lab is coordinated by Earth Forward Group (EFG), and implemented by a collaboration of the U.S.-based Project Learning Tree (PLT) and the Liberia-based Kakata Rural Teachers Training Institute (KRTTI).
PLT instructors in the U.S. conducted a series of live-virtual teaching sessions with trainees at KRTTI. These trainees go into the community each week and deliver these customized, place-specific STEM lessons to the hundreds of students who attend.
