CLAY AT HARVARD 2.0
As Clay completes the end of its 14th year of instruction and our 11th class sits for its KCSE exams, we are eager to catch you up on a number of events since last we checked in!
Many of you know that the Clay School Family has been especially lucky in developing a close relationship with Harvard’s Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and its Active Learning Laboratory (ALL), run by Dr. Anas Chalah. It was to ALL that our second annual batch of eager Clay students came in July for 2 weeks and wrote another chapter in this success story. This year’s Form 3 juniors were Charity, Rosemary, and Joshua. Like last year’s group, they traveled 2,275 miles to join a cadre of international students from Korea, Hong Kong and across the U.S.—all there to experience new learning pedagogies and pathways for solving problems, specifically about water issues affecting their communities.
In the first week, using team-based and design thinking, the cohort of students identified specific water issues to tackle. Equipped with these newly acquired techniques and advanced scientific tools in the ALL lab, each team was charged with creating a solution for their specific water “problem/issue.” The three teams undertook: a solar-powered UV system for killing and removal of algae blooms caused by nitrogen runoff in a Korean river; a small village solar-powered still for water purification in Makueni County, Kenya, where Clay students hail from; and finally, a water treatment plant to service the entire Mathare slum of Nairobi which lacks central clean water distribution. Each project was thoughtful, unique, and required the students to understand scientific, engineering, cultural, and economic components. Many thanks go the Paulson SEAS for its generous scholarships and also to our consistent and loyal donors for funding the journey. |
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