Presenting GH4STEM 100 Top Teacher: Douglas Nyarkoh, Saltpond #GH4STEM

Douglas Nyarkoh had his first experience as a teacher after he completed senior high school and was waiting to enter university. He spent a few months teaching, and that was how he fell in love with the profession. After four years of studying at the University of Ghana, he went back to teaching. 

When he was younger, Douglas had wanted to become a medical doctor. Although he is now a teacher, he still holds the dream of becoming a medical doctor and hopes that dream will come to be. Interestingly, over the next decade, Mr. Nyarkho still sees himself as an educator as well, which points to his love for imparting knowledge to the younger ones.

Mr. Nyarkoh teaches more than two hundred students at the Hariom International School in the Central Region. He has been teaching for the past four years and is a member of GAST, which allows him to meet other STEM educators and learn new approaches to teaching.

Mr. Nyarkoh is of the view that the economy of the country and the world relies on STEM to keep  developing and solving problems. He therefore makes STEM very interesting for his students when teaching. He is inspired by the questions that his students ask during classes and that motivates him to do more. As a teacher, one of his most memorable moments was in 2018 when all his twenty-five students scored the highest grade in the Basic Education Certificate exams.

When introduced to the JUNEOS Challenge by a colleague from GAST, Mr. Nyarkoh found the concept rather interesting and began to explore it. His students expressed interest in the challenge as well, and so they had a brainstorming session, selected the topic to work on, and prepared for the competition. Their project was inspired by some of the minor facts about science that people and students tend to get wrong. 

During the JUNEOS Challenge, Mr. Nyarkoh discovered the importance of practical experiments in STEM and the different ways to use practical demonstrations in teaching. Working on the challenge also helped him think about how to make STEM exciting for his students.

Mr. Nyarkoh would be very happy to be a part of the JUNEOS Challenge again if given the chance. He found the experience worth the time wishes that the project can expand to reach other schools and students. He also hopes that the initiative can establish clubs in schools to keep the initiative growing.

Article by Elizabeth Johnson.

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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