Central College Secondary School

Between 2019 and 2023, Central College Secondary School, Bulenga, worked diligently on various projects connecting STEM to the Ugandan Curriculum NCDC (National Curriculum Development Center). Teachers and students collaborated with other partner schools to build a STEM school community. Currently Phase II school, African Junior College, is being mentored by Central College Secondary School, Bulenga, to be recognized as STEM School in 2024.

The student STEM chapter for Central College Secondary School, Bulenga, was inducted on August 7, 2019, as part of the KDP/STEM Initiative of Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society and Marymount University's Global STEM Student Chapter.

The objectives of STEM at Central College: 

• Promote and apply hands on learning among students, using engineering and design.

• Carry out Project Based Learning (PBL) within the science curriculum.

• Develop students technological and computer based skills, conducting research.

• Involve students actively in gathering data and analyzing the outcomes.

The Mosquito! Module (https://ssec.si.edu/mosquito)

• Student leaders researched and demonstrated knowledge of the life cycle of the mosquito and common places where mosquitoes breed. This research led to the the major community problems of water pollution. 

• Water sources in the community are polluted by the running silt or soil, papers, rubbish and polythene bags.  These collect stagnant water. This makes the water unsafe for consumption. Student leaders wrote a letter to the village leaders requesting to allow them clean the spring wells around the school.

• Students were guided to design and develop a simple mosquito trap to capture the mosquito larva which in turn reduces the number of mosquitoes and its infestations. The students collect data obtained from different traps and analyze it to problem solve on how to reduce the larvae accumulation. 

Lessons Learned throughout the Project: 

• Student leaders gain communication skills and act as role models and initiators in solving community problems.

• Collaboration among members was/is encouraged to identify community problems and solve them using the available local materials.

• Promoting community hygiene is everyone’s responsibility.

• Students become aware of the diseases carried through mosquito infestations.