Empowering learners to tackle community problems

by Ezinne Eze-Obaji

Howbury School is based in Lagos and organises a summer internship for students to develop innovative solutions to sustainable development goals. This article shares how students in years 9 and 13 created an application to resolve local waste disposal problems.

Identifying the community issue
When walking around the Mende community of Maryland, students noticed that the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) waste disposal facilities were left uncleared and were spilling into the road. The students were concerned about the adverse effects this was having on the environment and the community.

Taking action
The students brainstormed ways they could resolve the waste issue and decided to create a waste management application. Using their knowledge of web programming, Python programming language and the Django web framework, the students created a community waste alert blog where members of the community could take a photograph of any uncleared heap of waste and could add its location so that LAWMA officials were alerted and cleared the rubbish. Students received coaching on how they could build their web-based application throughout the project from Mr. Biodun Ayobami, a LAWMA engineer. When the students had completed the web aspect of the project, they shared the live web blog to their school community and parents. Interns then challenged the local community to test the application by taking photographs of any uncollected waste and uploading them to the blog.

Reflection
This project involved careful planning. The students engaging with the external expert played a crucial role in the development of the application. The external expert mentored the students and provided them with critical feedback on how they could develop their product through drawing upon his own professional experience. We recommend for students to have basic knowledge in Python and Django before attempting such a project. This internship programme gave students hands-on experience of developing an application to resolve local waste disposal problems.

Howbury School is a family oriented Nursery and Primary School offering a blend of the Nigerian and English National curriculum.
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