STEM Skills Soar: Advanced Residential Camp Empowers Coastal Schoolgirls in Robotics and Research
An advanced residential STEM camp was held at the CSS Ava Center in Khulna on Saturday, April 12, 2025, aimed at introducing secondary schoolgirls to practical problem-solving using the scientific method and block-based coding through Arduino robotics. The two-day program was organized under the “STEM and ICT Skills for the Girls of Coastal Areas” project.
A total of 60 students from six secondary schools across three upazilas—Rampal, Tala, and Satkhira—participated in the camp. Since 2023, these schools have been part of an initiative to train students in hands-on science experiments, programming, and robotics under the STEM project. Following extensive training and six STEM fests across the upazilas, the most proficient students were selected to attend this advanced camp.
The first day of the camp featured a comprehensive session on how to conduct scientific research and develop research papers or scientific posters following the scientific method. This session was conducted by Tanvir Ul Islam, Academic Coordinator of Bangladesh Junior Science Olympiad and Science Congress; Farzana Lima, Coordinator at Maksudul Alam Science Lab; and Nafis Ahmed, President of the KUET Research Society.
In the second session of the day, students formed teams to identify real-life problems, collect relevant data, and prepare scientific posters following research guidelines. Each group then presented their posters to a panel of judges, marking the conclusion of the first day.
The second day began with an in-depth session on Scratch programming and block-based coding, followed by a hands-on Arduino robotics experiment where students connected the code to Arduino kits to build functional robotic projects.
Throughout the two-day camp, participants gained advanced, hands-on training in tech-based group projects. Lakshon Kumar Saha, Head Teacher of Comrade Ratansen Collegiate Girls’ School, who accompanied students to the camp, remarked, “If students can regularly receive step-by-step, hands-on training like this, we can surely build a skilled technological workforce even from the coastal regions. Teachers could play a more significant role in student skill development if such training were available to them as well.”
Rabeya Bashari, a Grade 7 student and camp participant, reflected, “When we joined the science fair with our project, we never thought about exploring the problem in such depth. Learning the steps of scientific research here made me realize how it can help me make my science project more precise and focused.”
The initiative is supported by the international organization Malala Fund and managed by the Bangladesh Freedom Foundation. It has been conducting various skill-building activities in science, mathematics, programming, and robotics for girls in classes 6 to 8 in six secondary schools across Rupsha (Khulna), Rampal (Bagerhat), and Tala (Satkhira), with the aim of increasing the participation of marginalized and underprivileged girls in science and technology-based fields. The project is implemented by Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN).
