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About the organisation The academy’s origin, beliefs and purpose.
Why this work exists The conditions the work is built to change.
How the work is funded Where the money for the work comes from, and how the academy plans to pay for more of its own work.
What it runs

The DreamSpace Lifecycle How a changemaker goes from a local problem to an impact venture, and the support along the way.
Venture pathway The Lifecycle for changemakers who take the venture route.
Labs & research Specialist skills, and the groups of people who keep them going, in many places.
Ventures & incubation How a tested solution becomes a venture.
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Theory of change The steps by which the work is expected to lead to change.
Impact & the global goals The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals the work is linked to.
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Start here Theory of change How the work is expected to lead to change, and how strong the evidence is for each step. Read more

Who DreamSpace Academy is, why the work exists and how it is meant to change things.
Site overview
What it teaches

Programmes and domains What the academy teaches, the subject areas (domains) of the STEAM programmes, and how a course is split into levels.
Innovation & enterprise How learners in the STEAM programmes learn research, enterprise and money skills, from the first stage.
Empowerment Inside School The in-school programme running now: practical ICT, robotics and STEAM learning in government schools.
How the STEAM programmes work

Learning by making How the STEAM programmes connect knowledge, making, reflection and action.
Facilitation How teaching changes from stage to stage, and what trainers and facilitators do.
The Changemaker Journey How a learner in the STEAM programmes moves from exploring to changing their community.
Assessment How work is judged: the finished piece, the learner’s explanation and their reflection, against one standard.
Start here More than the STEAM programmes The STEAM programmes are one part of what the academy teaches. It also runs business and entrepreneurship, digital security and teacher training. Read more

The STEAM programmes are one part of what DreamSpace Academy teaches. Most pages here describe the STEAM programmes.
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The product

The MakerSpace model A community makerspace designed so that other places can set up their own.
Replication How one working makerspace becomes many.
In short Who provides what The local partner provides the space and pays for the makerspace. DreamSpace Academy provides the design, the quality standard and a licence to run its programmes. Read more

A makerspace that local partners can set up and run as a social franchise, with a licence to run the academy’s programmes.
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Articles Short explanations, essays, and research reviews of the key terms the work uses.
Questions Answers for parents, learners, schools, donors and partners.
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Activities Every recorded activity, dated, one page each.
The record Activities since 2018 Every activity DreamSpace Academy has recorded, dated, with one page each. Read more

Questions, activity records, articles, terms and the sources behind them.
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Programme, 2021

ExoLab-8, an experiment on the International Space Station

Young people at the academy joined a space experiment on how clover roots and bacteria work together, launched on Cygnus NG-15.

When: 20 February 2021
Where: Batticaloa and the International Space Station
Format: Research participation
With: Magnitude.io

On 20 February 2021 the Cygnus NG-15 supply mission launched to the International Space Station. It carried equipment for ExoLab-8, an experiment DreamSpace Academy took part in.

Red clover lives in partnership with Rhizobium bacteria. The bacteria form small lumps (nodules) on the plant’s roots and turn nitrogen from the air into food for the plant.

The experiment looked at how the stress of spaceflight affects that partnership. It was the first attempt to grow these root nodules on a plant like clover in near-weightless conditions (microgravity).

Participants at the academy ran the same experiment on the ground, at the Space Lab bench, to compare with the one in space.

Six months later the experiment ran again on ExoLab-9.

Images

The ExoLab-8 experiment at the academy, Batticaloa, February 2021.