Born and raised in Accra, Michael Amoah’s teaching profession has taken him to Asamankese in the Eastern Region where he currently lives. Michael enjoys watching football or investigative and crime series and movies in his free time, but when he isn’t doing that he is busy teaching science to three hundred students at the Asamankese Anum Presby Junior High School.
Michael Amoah has spent the last twelve years of his life teaching science and although it was not his first choice of profession, he has come to find fulfilment in it.
Science has always been his preferred subject, however in his younger years, Michael was working towards becoming a medical doctor. However, financial constraints cut that dream short after secondary school and led him to enrol in teacher training college instead. At the time, the change in profession did not seem fulfilling. Twelve years down the line, Michael is more than convinced that teaching is what he was meant to and is very passionate about it.
Aware of the fact that the world revolves around science, Michael Amoah believes that being a STEM educator is an important role in education and society and provides him the opportunity to keep with the times and stay relevant. For his students, STEM provides an opportunity to think beyond the theory.
For the past twelve years, Mr Amoah has been inspired by the excellent results of his STEM students and the problem solving skills they acquire through the course.
Hearing about JUNEOS Challenge through his district science coordinator, Michael immediately presented the challenge to his students who got involved from the get go. Their project was centered around pencil lead and both teacher and students learnt a lot from the program.
His biggest take home from the JUNEOS Challenge was the use of a more practical approach in teaching which he plans to use widely. He also learnt the need to be able to have time for all his students to discover their talents, strengths and weaknesses in STEM.
Mr Amoah would love for JUNEOS to come back to his school. He would also like the program to have more visibility and publicity for more schools, teachers and students to experience it.
For now, Michael is not a member of any STEM organization because these organizations typically accept only educators in the senior high schools or higher and he is a junior high school teacher. This is why the JUNEOS Challenge is important to him because it gives all educators a chance to participate.
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Article by Elizabeth Johnson.
Elizabeth Johnson works as a researcher and project manager with Dr Monk and volunteers the rest of her time with the Writers Project of Ghana where she takes up various roles such as radio show production, social media management and administrator for their annual literary festival. She is a published writer who writes both fiction and non fiction and has won awards for her work.
