A two-day Advanced STEM Camp was organized at Khulna CSS Ava Center on April 12 to provide an idea of ​​the ins and outs of Arduino Robotics through practical problem solving and block-based coding following the scientific research method. Under the STEM and ICT Skills for the Girls of Coastal Areas project, a total of 60 students from six secondary schools in three coastal upazilas of Rampal, Tala and Satkhira participated in this two-day residential camp.

Under the STEM project, students from these six secondary schools in three upazilas are provided with hands-on skill development training on programming and robotics, along with practical experiments in science. After receiving long training, a total of 6 STEM fests were organized in three upazilas where 60 students were selected based on their skills and got the opportunity to participate in this Advanced STEM Camp. On the first day, a detailed session on how to conduct a research activity and create a research paper or scientific research poster by following the scientific method to solve a two-day practical problem was conducted by Tanvir Ul Islam, Academic Coordinator of Bangladesh Junior Science Olympiad and Science Congress, Farzana Lima, Coordinator of Maksudul Alam Science Laboratory; and Nafis Ahmed, President of KUET Research Society. In the second part of the first day, the students themselves found a practical problem in groups, collected data, and created a scientific poster by following the research method. At the end of the day, the first day of the camp ended with the presentation of their respective research posters in front of the camp judges. The second day of the camp began with learning the ins and outs of Scratch programming and block-based coding. Then, the students connected the block-based coding with the Arduino kit and created a robotics experiment.

The main objective of the camp was to encourage students with an initial understanding of technology-based skills to explore science, programming, and robotics in more depth.

It is worth noting that to ensure the participation of girls, especially underprivileged girls from the coastal areas, in technology and science-based activities, Bangladesh Open Source Network has been conducting various activities, including skill-enhancing training on science, mathematics, programming, and robotics, for girl students from grades 6 to 8 of six secondary schools in three coastal upazilas of Bangladesh: Rupsha in Khulna, Rampal in Bagerhat, and Tala in Satkhira.