Project Duration

2021-present

Location: 

Marangu District, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania

Goals

• Support Tanzanian Science and English Language Teachers in pedagogical practices around inquiry models of learning using school gardens.
• Train teachers in the practices of garden-based learning while integrating science and English language development.
• Develop campus-based monitoring materials and programming to support students’ engagement in monitoring biodiversity in their school garden and surrounding community
• Support Tanzanian goals of maintaining Kiswahili language and culture while also supporting English Language and 21st Century skills development. 

Background 

The UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science is proud to partner with Kuleana Youth Empowerment and its Director, Catherine Njau, to create powerful, place-based learning experiences that foster scientific engagement, environmental stewardship, and youth leadership across Tanzania and beyond. Through this collaboration, we are supporting young people in exploring connections between science, culture, and community, drawing inspiration from our learnings from campus-based monitoring efforts in California as well as our observations visiting schools across the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania.

Activities

Building on the Center’s experience in co-creating community and citizen science programs, this partnership emphasizes a “community first” approach. Alongside educators from across the region, we have worked together to design activities that start with young people’s local knowledge, and build on educator’s goals of connecting science and English instruction through campus observation and data collection. Through in-person teacher institutes as well as online webinars and student check-ins, teachers and students explore hands-on investigations of the natural world around them—whether it’s monitoring local biodiversity or giving oral presentations about compost.

Through this work, students won’t just learn science—they may become scientists, community leaders, and advocates. They will build skills in data collection, observation, and critical thinking, while also forging strong connections to place, culture, and each other. At the Center for Community and Citizen Science, we believe that authentic, meaningful scientific inquiry can happen anywhere and that youth, when given the opportunity and support, can drive change in their own communities and beyond.

The partnership with Kuleana Youth Empowerment reflects our commitment to fostering a global network of youth-centered, community-driven science initiatives. We are excited to continue learning from and with our partners in Tanzania as we build a more connected, just, and sustainable future. In addition, we see the potential for this type of collaboration and programming expanding and serving the goals of the Tanzanian education system through an expanded system of school gardens providing both nutrition and learning.

Funders

UC Davis Global Affairs Grant

Partners

Catherine Njau, Director of Kuleana Youth Empowerment, Teachers in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania and beyond.