Across the world, teachers face a persistent challenge: how to make science and technology education more engaging, and accessible to all students without cost or digital technology resources. Many classrooms still rely on rote learning, where students memorize facts rather than apply knowledge to real-world problems. As a result, learners often struggle to see the connection between what they study and the world around them and teachers lack access to resources or professional development opportunities that build confidence in hands-on, inquiry-based teaching.
The Design Challenge Learning (DCL) Teacher Trainer Program is transforming this reality. Built on the foundation of design thinking and innovative education, the program equips teachers with the tools and mindset to create student-centered, project-based learning experiences that foster creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving.
The DCL pedagogy is uniquely designed to meet educators where they are at. Through a blend of in-person workshops, interactive online modules, and flexible scheduling, the program adapts to each school’s context and teachers’ availability. Educators are guided through the Innovation Design Process, experiencing firsthand how design challenges can make science, engineering, and other subjects come alive in the classroom. By learning to frame real-world problems and support student-driven inquiry, teachers discover new ways to ignite curiosity and build critical thinking in their students.
After participating in immersive in-person workshops and online sessions where they learn the Design Challenge Learning Process, educators guide students through mini challenges that encourage collaboration, reflection, and iteration in any subject area.
In Nakuru, Kenya, students in a home science class were tasked with solving a problem in their community: designing kitchen gardens for people who don’t have much land. Between two school buildings students constructed test-bed designs at various stages. Their designs used materials left over from a recent construction project at the school: cement bags, old pipes, and strips of waterproofing. Many used objects like tires, buckets, and parts of banana trees. Students were working independently and collaboratively, periodically huddling up as a team to test or discuss a strategy. The teacher walked around to groups and asked them questions about their work to help them consider different options.
The teams that had begun testing irrigation systems discovered this to be more of a challenge than they expected, but they seemed eager to continue working to find a solution. This experience showed that the teacher had set his students up for success by trusting them to try their ideas, to fail and try again until they found something that worked. The approach moves beyond memorization and rote learning to make STEM learning collaborative and deeply connected to local contexts by solving real world problems in the local community.
Starting as a grassroots program with a handful of schools, it has expanded to reach thousands of educators and hundreds of thousands of students across Kenya. In collaboration with the government of Kenya, including local education authorities, Teacher Services Commission, and Heads of Institutions, we were able to mobilize the scaling of our program to implement the train the trainer model across different zones. Since July 2024, we have trained over 600 educators as TOTs who have disseminated their knowledge with two in-person trainings at dedicated zonal districts, reaching over 19,348 teachers at 1,293 schools. As of June 2025, we have impacted more than 20,000 educators and around 568,039 students.In a world dominated by textbook learning, the infectious energy of our in‑person training has become our strongest driver of word of mouth. It gives educators a rare chance to collaborate, use design thinking, solve real problems, and build devices from low- or no-cost recyclable materials they source locally.
Inspired by Design Challenge Learning in Silicon Valley, the DCL Teacher Training Program in Kenya can be both globally scalable and deeply rooted in communities by adapting to cultural and local context whilst being relevant to the local Kenya curriculum. We have made the lessons applicable for Kenyan teachers and students, including those with special needs by modifying the language and making the mini challenges and scenarios simpler to understand.
Where in the US, teachers and students can buy resources for design purposes, we are encouraging our Kenyan teachers to source recyclable and other materials that are locally available. A materials resource book has been designed to help teachers and students identify various materials they can collect and use as connectors, supporters and building purposes. We have designed surveys for teachers and students so that we can evaluate and improve on our lesson plans each year. We have continued to establish stronger ties with curriculum support officers and education authorities who help mobilize the training. We have grown the reach of the DCL Teacher Trainer Program: in 2024, we trained educators in Nakuru County. In 2025, we expanded the training to Kisumu County, Kenya, with an additional reinforcement of a refresher course in Nakuru County. For 2026, we have a refresher course planned in Kisumu County as well as new training planned for five additional counties that will impact nearly 80,000 additional educators.
Science centers, libraries, and technology hubs are uniquely positioned to be anchors in this global movement. Design Challenge Learning fits naturally into classrooms, exhibit floors, and maker spaces while supporting public programs centered on innovation and problem-solving. It provides a structured pedagogy that connects informal learning experiences with what students are doing in school and can turn your institution into a regional hub for teacher training, student challenges, and community-based innovation events.
By adopting and adapting DCL, educators around the world can train educators from schools and community organizations and host local or regional design challenge events.This work directly advances global priorities around inclusive engagement and equitable access to STEM, ensuring that young people in rural, underserved, and special needs settings are not left behind.
Collaborate with us to become a Design Challenge Learning hub for your city or region, train local teachers and facilitators using the DCL model. You can bring low-cost, hands-on STEM learning to classrooms (no digital technology needed!) by contacting Shital Patel, Global Partnerships Director, at spatel@thetech.org or Jessica Adam, Global Operations Manager, at jadam@thetech.org. We can provide training, resources, and tools to teachers that want to supplement existing curriculum to create an innovator mindset using human-critical skills to develop the next generation of innovators!
