#GH4STEM TOP 100 Teacher: George Owusu Amponsem – Jisonayili MA JHS

Mr. George Owusu Amponsem comes from a family of fourteen from Adansi in the Ashanti region. He has been teaching for seven years now and currently has over one hundred and twenty students. In the next five to ten years, he hopes to become a lecturer and consultant in science.

Growing up, Mr. Amponsem hoped to be a pilot, and along the line he also considered going to Nursing Training School to enter the health professions. However, lack of financial support made it impossible to follow any of these dreams. But Mr. Amponsem did not allow any of these hardships to draw him back. After engaging in petty trading for a while, he went to Wiawso College of Education from where he received a Diploma in Education. He then continued to acquire his Bachelor and Masters Degree in Education at the University of Cape Coast.

Mr. Amponsem is greatly fascinated by science. He explains that the  practical nature of science is like no other. In his very own words “Science is part of our daily lives and we can never do away with science: this is what keeps me motivated in my profession.” He continues to improve his knowledge in STEM by attending various workshops. He has been a member of the Ghana Association of Science Teacher (GAST) since 2012 and a member of BSTEM since 2017. This helps him to share knowledge and learn from others who are in the same field.

On the benefits of being a STEM educator, Mr. Amponsem explains that his profession gives him the opportunity to clear any misconceptions that people may have about STEM and also educate them on issues relating to science. One positive experience for him as an educator was when he had the opportunity to interact with international bodies as a result of a STEM workshop.

Mr. Amponsem’s students were excited to find out that they were going to perform an experiment on TV. He explains, ”My students love engineering and so they were very interested in conducting an experiment for the JUNEOS Challenge.” The students used the opportunity to display the gadgets and devices which they had made.

Mr. Amponsem suggests that the JUNEOS Challenge can be improved by organising it in such a way that more students get to participate. He also wants more aspects of science to be included in the JUNEOS challenge.

Mr. Amponsem is grateful to JUNEOS for giving his students the opportunity to exhibit their talents. For him, participating in the challenge has also increased his interest in learning more science, especially physics. He hopes that practical STEM lessons are encouraged because it will go a long way to improve Ghana’s development.

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Kofi Konadu Berko is passionate about Education and Youth development. He holds a B.A in Adult Education and Human Resource Studies from the University Of Ghana. His works have been  published in the historic Afroyoung Adult anthology titled Waterbirds On the Lakeshore, Adabraka: Stories From the Center Of the World , Tampered Press and the Kalahari Review. He blogs at obolokofi.wordpress.com