Cohort 1 of the Upshift Program held its class on August 9th, 2021, at 1:00 pm. This training aimed to teach students how to use various research methods to discover problems in their neighbourhoods.
The trainer, Miss Oreo, began the session by assisting participants in utilizing “Google classroom” to submit homework assigned to them in the previous class. Thanks to this task, Miss Oreo was able to divide the students into six groups depending on their geographical location. The students then participated in a group exercise in which they were asked to identify one neighbourhood concern and express their feelings about it. Following a ten-minute conversation among the groups, one member from each group stood up to address the issue that her group had identified. Poor sanitation, terrible roads, illiteracy, poor drainage systems, school drop-outs, and a shortage of toilet facilities are just a few of the participants’ issues.
Miss Oreo continued the session by describing what “research” is and the many types of research to the participants. She gave examples to help the students comprehend the many study categories. She also talked to them about what “stakeholders” are and how important they are in the problem-solving process. After that, each group was given the task of identifying at least three stakeholders in their issue area.
The trainer then went on to explain “perspective thinking” with the use of visuals.
Finally, at the end of the class, Miss Oreo gave each group an assignment to research the issues they identified using the categories given in today’s class. She gave them time to plan out their questions.
