Advancing Teaching and Learning Experiences of STEM Education in Nigeria

Photo by ZMorph All-in-One 3D Printers (unsplash)

The main challenges of STEM education in Nigeria include slow rate of curriculum update, lack of essential laboratories, lack of practical-based learning tools, inadequate number of STEM teachers, and lack of adequate funding, especially in schools within rural areas [9]. These barriers to STEM education are a product of the economic situation of the country [1]. This is the key reason why we intend to introduce portable desktop 3D printers and scanners made with locally manufactured and biodegradable parts, which will be affordable for Nigerian schools. Nigeria’s recovery from the 2016 recession [2] has been cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to drag the country to its worst recession since the 1980s [3]. According to a December 2020 World Bank report, Nigeria’s GDP is projected to contract by about 4 percent [3]. Nigeria is also heavily dependent on the oil sector which is below 10 percent of its GDP; therefore, its economy needs to be diversified and is still at the mercy of volatile global oil price changes [4]. The fourth UN sustainable development goal is “Quality Education”. Investing in human capital by improving the quality of education in Nigeria, which is the pillar of this research, will enable upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty [5]. A UN report pointed out that not all children who attend school are learning, it also stated that the disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes are found across regions, and sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Central and Southern Asia lag behind [5]. Another important reason to introduce 3D printers and scanners to STEM students is because additive manufacturing is sustainable and requires much less material waste than traditional manufacturing techniques [6]. Additive manufacturing is a process that takes CAD (Computer Aided Design) files as input and deposits materials layer by layer to physically form what was designed [10]. Also, in contrast with traditional manufacturing techniques, 3D printing releases less carbon dioxide because of less energy usage [7]. To ensure an eco-friendly approach, we, together with a team of dedicated engineers from an additive manufacturing startup (Lecreativo, Inc.), will design and build 3D printers and scanners using biodegradable parts. Together with the printers and scanners, we intend to supply PLA (Polylactic acid) filaments; a biodegradable plastic derived from corn starch, or sugarcane, or soybeans [8].

The goal of this research is to improve the teaching and learning of STEM in Nigerian secondary schools by building portable desktop 3D printers and scanners with locally manufactured and biodegradable parts, which will be affordable for Nigerian schools. The printers will be affordable because we intend to re-use discarded electronic parts, wooden frames, and locally made parts to build them. The 3D printers and scanners will be designed, patented, and manufactured in Nigeria together with PLA filaments. We are of the opinion that the ability to turn ideas and theories into virtual and physical models is critical in solving real world problems and teaching any subject, especially STEM related ones, therefore because 3D printers and scanners are multi-disciplinary; they can be used to teach more than one subject therefore they are the right fit for achieving this teaching and learning ability. Comparisons between the STEM performances of students who were taught with a 3D printer vs those who were taught without any 3D printer will be analyzed for furthering this study. With this paper, we intend to contribute to recent discussions about decolonization of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) education across borders, with regards to exploring how students and teachers interact with disruptive technologies such as 3D printing.

Tobechukwu Nwabueze is a second-year Master’s student in Engineering Management and a research assistant at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. at Stevens Institute of Technology. His research interest areas include Human-Computer Interaction with a focus on Education, Healthcare, Additive Manufacturing, and Industrial Developments in Nigeria.

Sang Won Bae is an assistant professor and a director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. at Stevens Institute of Technology. Her research interest areas are Human-Computer Interaction, Human-Centered AI Systems, Mobile Computing, and Machine Learning. She is interested in developing intelligent human-machine systems for solving real-world problems in the contexts of Healthcare and Education.

References

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3. World Bank Group. 2020. Rising to the Challenge : Nigeria’s COVID Response. Nigeria Development Update Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/152691607607461391/Rising-to-the-Challenge-Nigerias-COVID-Response .
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