A shoemaker by day, 15 year-old Raman is a student by night in Mumbai, India.
He recently took Level Up Village’s Global App Developers through LUV’s Global Partner Masoom Education Group and was inspired by the experience to fully engage in his studies and pursue his dream of becoming an engineer.
“Before, Raman didn’t like school and never showed up for any of the school activities. Now he is passionate about his goals and ready to work hard,” said Vishvajeet Pawar, Specialist, Masoom Education Group.
All over the world, Level Up Village (LUV) programs provide K-9 students with hands-on, engaging STEAM (STEM + arts) activities that make STEAM accessible and inspiring.
Last spring, when students from The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine in New York City took Level Up Village’s Global Minecraft Builders course, they were paired with partner students at iEARN Pakistan in Karachi, and the result was extraordinary one-to-one global collaboration.
“They built a transportation system at Pakistan’s suggestion, a hospital that Cathedral organized, and even a collaborative flower garden, which required both classes to recall their point plotting skills from an earlier class.”
That was the opening question in a video message from a young student at the Innovative Minds School in India. Masha, a U.S. student at Fisher Island Day School (FIDS) in Miami Beach, Florida, walked over the class sink and turned on the faucet. “This is how I get my water,” she said.
Then the student in India responded that many people in her community don’t have that option. In fact, she explained, getting water was quite difficult.
“It was an eye-opener for Masha,” said Lynn deAraujo a second grade teacher at FIDS.
This cross-cultural exchange was facilitated by Level Up Village (LUV), which began working with FIDS in the 2013-14 school year as part of the school’s push to increase STEAM programming.
Nashat, a student at Pioneers Baccalaureate School (PBS) in Nablus, West Bank, recently described LUV’s Global Doctors course as “one of the best things I have done in my life.”
In the course, students learned about human body systems by dissecting a variety of specimens, including a frog, a grasshopper, and a sheep’s heart and brain – and shared their findings via video message with partner students in the U.S.
