SERVIR E&SA has introduced an activity dubbed “RCMRD Space Challenge” targeting primary and secondary schools to enlighten and equip the children in Kenya on some of the causes and drivers of climate change as way of giving back to society.

The RCMRD Space Challenge will leverage on a partnership between RCMRD and the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program, an initiative which provides students with an opportunity to participate in data collection and learn basic scientific processes.

Consequently, several primary and secondary school teachers attended a two day orientation seminar on implementing the RCMRD Space Challenge. The teachers drawn from schools including Mangu High School; Moi Forces Academy in Nairobi, Homabay High School; Thome Boys Secondary School and St. Scholastica Catholic School participated in the training.

The space challenge is part of RCMRD’s strategy on engaging the youth within its 20 member States. RCMRD in partnership with GLOBE program has launched the first edition of a three year program dubbed RCMD space challenge under the theme of land degradation and climate change.

This entails organisation of inception workshops to equip the science and geography teachers from various schools with necessary skills in training their students on weather trends and various weather parameters associations. In the first year (2017), students will be required to compute trends in humidity, temperature and rainfall in various zones (the data to be provided by GLOBE and Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) and determine weather change drivers (similarities and difference) in various zones. They will also be required to mention the link between the weather parameters.

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Content for this article provided by Ken Kasera, User Engagement Lead and Dorah Nesoba Communications and Outreach Expert (RCMRD/SERVIREastern & Southern Africa).