Success stories for East Europe Foundation — STEM labs in rural schools
To tell about equipping schools in small towns and villages with modern science and technology laboratories.
Our client, the East Europe Foundation, asked for help in covering the project. It equipped 21 schools in 5 regions of Ukraine with STEM laboratories. Children from small towns and villages received equipment for learning, creativity, and self-development: 3D printers, robotic constructors, digital laboratories for physics and biology, weather stations, digital microscopes, etc. The project was made possible by the Ukrainian-Swiss EGAP program and the support of the IT company EPAM Ukraine.
The schools were renovated to create new science and technology classrooms and sent teachers for training. The children joined clubs and have already presented their first projects - robots made of Lego that move, dance, and perform simple tasks.
- to tell the media about the project itself
- to provide communications support for the awarding event for the winners of the first STEM projects competition.
We offered the client coverage through success stories in regional and national media, as the schools were ready to share their experiences.
We prepared and approved the proposal. It included:
- 4 success stories in regional media outlets in Odesa, Volyn, Dnipro, and Vinnytsia regions.
- The story of an EGAP robotics implementation expert in a national media outlet.
- Press releases for PR support of two events - online presentation of the school creative project competition and awarding of the winners.
- Pitching the story to a national media outlet with possible partnership options (for example, to become a platform for voting for the best school project).
Next came what we love most about our work — communication with the schools that received STEM labs. Principals, teachers, and children were eager to share their impressions, recalling how they prepared for the selection competition, how excited they were to receive the news of the grant, and how they renovated their classrooms. The teachers talked about the multi-stage learning process, as they had never worked with 3D printers or programmable Lego sets before. And the children were delighted with the new impressions and experiences. In small towns and villages, there are usually no robotics clubs, so for many, the equipment was a novelty.
Eventually, we published 4 articles in regional media:
We also talked to and recorded the story of robotics expert Yulia Maslyana and published it in the national media outlet Rubryka. Yulia started out as a computer science teacher at a school in Chernihiv, showed interest in robotics, gathered a team of students and took them to competitions. They reached the national stage. After that, Yulia was invited as an expert to the EGAP program, which helps implement digital services in Ukraine. It was Yulia who was involved in equipping schools with STEM laboratories.
The media agreed to publish all 5 publications for free. In addition, we offered the story to ShoTam media. They were interested in it, contacted the principal of one of the schools, and are preparing a video on their own.
