Who it is

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.
How it checks

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.
Measurement How the academy checks whether its work does what it is meant to.
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.
Site overview
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.
Site overview
Read

Articles Short explanations, essays, and research reviews of the key terms the work uses.
Questions Answers for parents, learners, schools, donors and partners.
Look up

Site overview Every page on this site, with a line on what each one covers.
Glossary Words this site uses in a particular sense, and what each one does not mean.
References The books, papers and statistics this site draws on.
Records

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.
Site overview

Visit, 2025

UNICEF Chief of Education visits

Erin Tanner, Chief of Education at UNICEF Sri Lanka, spent a day at the academy.

When: 21 March 2025
Where: Batticaloa
Format: Partner visit
With: UNICEF Sri Lanka

Erin Tanner, Chief of Education at UNICEF Sri Lanka, visited on 21 March 2025. She toured the workshop floor, met the team, and looked at how the academy runs challenge-based learning and grassroots innovation.

UNICEF has its own pillars for technology used with children: safety first, a demonstrated effect on learning, designed for children, and accessible and equitable. The academy measures its work against two outside standards, and these pillars are one of them.

No agreement followed from the visit, and none is claimed.

Images

UNICEF Chief of Education visits, Batticaloa, 2025-03-21.

All activities