After a year-long journey of iteration, collaborative development, and capacity building, the Open Societal Challenge (OSC) team has published three educational STEAM booklets with their teacher manual. This is a step taken by Impact Hub Kathmandu | Fablab Nepal towards inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).

This initiative is made possible with the generous support of The Open University, UK and the invaluable feedback and active participation of teachers from the two pilot community government schools – Adarsha Kanya Niketan Secondary School and Shree Harisiddhi Secondary School situated in Lalitpur Metropolitan City. The key objective of this initiative is to develop a contextualized and reproducible STEAM Education Kit tailored to the local school curriculum and classroom needs.

STEAM education is a dynamic, interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that inspires creativity, fosters critical thinking, and prepares students for the future. STEAM education is more than just integrating five subject areas: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. It’s about cultivating a mindset that values curiosity, collaboration, and innovation.

The OSC team has developed the culturally-responsive activities in these booklets focusing on Nepal’s CDC curriculum of Grade-6. Through these activities, the sense of belonging will be the priority of learning. Culturally-responsive activities are the teaching strategies, projects, and classroom practices that connect learning content to the cultural backgrounds, experiences, and identities of students for better inclusive classroom instruction. Through these activities, students feel accepted, valued, and included in their educational environment, also defined as Sense of belonging. Each booklet has its own medium of learning ranging from structured-instructional based learning to self-exploration based learning.

One of the booklets whose learning mode is a combination of both structured-instructional and self-exploration, is Haat Bazaar Activity. This activity immerses an experiential simulation of a traditional Nepali Haat Bazaar to explore its local, cultural, and economic significance, while developing key 21st-century skills through active participation and role-play. Through this activity, the students of grade-6 will learn:

• Local occupations and trading practices

• Profit and loss concept

• Unitary Method

• Effective Communication Skills

In summary, the designed booklets are a collection of culturally responsive activities emphasizing the sense of belonging. As we enter the second phase of this initiative, the resources will be implemented in our pilot community schools and reiterated based on feedback from educators and learners. To broaden the impact, the OSC team is actively seeking support to expand access to these materials across more community government schools. We invite you to share this work within your networks and collaborate with us in advancing equitable, locally grounded education for all.