Changing 3rd world lives through STEM education in Honduras

Abstract

During the summer of 2018, faculty members traveled to the country of Honduras to help install four shipping containers that had been converted into STEM classrooms (labs). Instantaneously, an entire town was granted the opportunity to alter the cycle of poverty gripping their communities for generations. Being part of a delegation of educators and students including those representing SKY (Skilled Knowledgeable Youth) (a 501c3 non-profit organization) [5], they delivered and installed the labs in the town of Belfante, Honduras. The converted containers were the product of year-long STEM projects completed by four high schools in Alabama. The four containers were converted into a computer lab, a welding lab, a woodshop, and an engine repair lab. This paper chronicles this and other amazing efforts of a national/international award-winning STEM educator and the impact made on young people on two continents. It continues with a discussion about the immediate and far-reaching impact that could be achieved through this ongoing container/classroom initiative. With a multitude of existing projects and installations in Honduras, political/industry connections made and logistical strategies charted, the momentum of this initiative is primed to invite collegiate involvement in the form of senior design projects, web-based collaborative learning environments, educator field experiences or even study abroad opportunities for American students. The paper thus concludes with a call to engineering universities across the country to adopt a Sister School and commit to applying energy and resources to it via service-based initiatives providing sustainable, world-view experiences for their students while at the same time profoundly changing lives.