Our Lab Kits

In early-mid 2024, supported by an American Physical Society Forum on Education grant, WS2 led an effort to design and distribute an additional low-cost, hands-on Lab Kit for secondary level (grades 6-12) students. 

The inspiration for this Lab Kit came from a teacher training workshop in Morogoro, Tanzania, held in September 2023, which was supported by the Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange Program. A subset of teachers from this workshop engaged in Lab Kit design and created “Experiencing the Natural World”, a Kit that uniquely combines hands-on experiments on topics including Archimedes principle, heat transfer, and chemical reaction to connect students with experiences they have in nature.

334 secondary students in Tanzania have used “Experiencing the Natural World” to date, with 59% being girls. Survey results of students that used the Lab Kit indicated extremely positive reception of the Lab Kit; when asked if they liked the Lab Kit, students answered on average 4.91/5 on a 1-5 scale rating with 5 being the highest. In addition, students reported their enjoyment of science as high; when asked how much students enjoy science after using the Kit, students answered on average 4.81/5 on a 1-5 scale rating with 5 being the highest. 

As one student offered in the free response section of the Lab Kit survey, “I learn that the natural world is very beautiful if you learn and study science subject.” The newest Lab Kit is now available for free download and use for students across the globe.

 From 2020-2022, WS2 spearheaded the Lab Kit Initiative during which low-cost physics and materials science laboratory kits for K-12 students were designed and distributed to schools in eastern Africa. 

During the design phase, seven international teams comprised of 59 volunteers (over 70% women) created 3 Lab Kits for primary level students and 4 Lab Kits for secondary level students on the topics of food science, electrostatics, light and color, and energy transfer. 

These low-cost Lab Kits that utilize easy-to-source materials were distributed to eleven partners from Ethiopia (2), Kenya (2), Rwanda (1), Tanzania (5), and Uganda (1), and over 5100 students at over 40 school sites engaged with our Lab Kits, with 62% being girls. These visits corresponded to 300 hours of student engagement with the Lab Kits and involvement of 141 teachers and 143 facilitators. 

Survey results of students that used the Lab Kits indicated positive engagement; when asked if they liked the Lab Kit, primary level students answered on average 3.6/4, with 4 being “YES!!”, and secondary level students answered on average 4.5/5 on a 1-5 scale rating with 5 being the highest. Importantly, self-perception of girls being skilled in science or seeing themselves as scientists improved after using the Lab Kits. In the case of secondary level girls who rated themselves as being skilled in science on a scale from 1-5 with 5 being the highest, the improvement in self-perception after using the Lab Kits increased from a rating of 3.2/5 to 3.9/5. 

We are pleased to offer our Lab Kit materials (teacher and student manuals and training slides for educators) for free download. 

We welcome you to reach out to us if you have questions about using our Lab Kits or are interested in collaborating on a project involving our Lab Kits.