NIHERST and partners were scheduled to open the 18th Community Science Week in Gasparillo, to run from April 28th – May 3rd 2014.

In March 2003, with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and the Ministry of Education, NIHERST embarked on a novel outreach programme entitled “Community Science Weeks: Being at Home with Science”. This programme is structured to make science and technology learning more accessible to rural communities and communities that are under-served by the National Science Centre.

Since then, this outreach programme has visited 15 communities in Trinidad and Tobago, most recently Caroni East, Manzanilla and Toco in 2013.

The general content of the Community Science Weeks includes a mixture of interactive exhibits, workshops, lectures and entertainment designed to engage residents in a fun learning atmosphere. Playful hands-on exhibits from the YAPOLLO exhibition, other exhibits at the NIHERST/NGC National Science Centre, and Creative Design Laboratory illustrate a variety of basic and applied scientific principles, including robotics.

For primary students, there are workshops on Primary Science curriculum topics with particular focus on the difficult areas for students and topics at the Standard Two and Standard Four levels, which are tested nationally. For secondary students, topics in the ‘hard sciences’ and electronics at the Fifth Form level are covered, as well as robotics which is on the Computer Science syllabus. One-day workshops are also conducted on problematic areas of the CXC Chemistry, Physics and Biology exams, based on the CSEC examiners’ reports.

For more information visit NIHERST’s page for the project.