S3 Ep. 215 Harnessing Education: Transforming Learning into Economic Growth and Community Building

Speaker 1: yep, hello there. Okay, we've not started, not until I say these words good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good everything. Wherever you are on the surface of the earth at this particular instant watching and listening to me, how are you? You know how we say it on the show. This is that space where we come in, safe space to lean on one another's experience to forge a positive path. Welcome to the World Cafe live show. Oh, yes, what are we going to be doing today? Before we get there, I need to ask you that question how are you? I will not just rhetorically now really ask you. A lot has been happening here across the globe. So much political row here and there, the US elections and what have you. A lot has been happening, but you know what? We're still here. It's been amazing these few days. You know, each time I process the thought of coming in and speaking, sharing with you. What are we going to be doing today? Yeah, I did process this one. I hope you enjoy it. I'm. I will be looking at how learning affects production. Yes, learning affects production, so we're going to begin it with this. You know the society. When you look at the society, like, just take some few steps backwards and look at the society, the world and everything happening. How do we produce, how do we make the economy work? How do we make, yes, day-to-day living, meaningful learning is key, very key. So you look at certain uh civilizations, you know from history. You see how one person discovered something, how what he or she has discovered has this economic value and impact on the society. And, before you know it, a curriculum is built around it and people are called into classrooms, which we call education, by the way, and learning starts. So we begin to like uh, for the want of better expression, have a binomial expansion approach to it. You know, just like you're building something and it's growing, your growth is growing and all of that, or you're building it from bottom up. But I ask myself, I asked myself this question how do I tie my learning to my production to bring about economic value? And I'm going to have some things to read to you. Then we'll pick the discussion from there. So, in processing this, what came to my mind was the discovery of the atom. Yes, the atom. Who discovered the atom? And what has the discovery of the atom got to do with our day-to-day living? You understand, like, how does it affect Nigerians will say the cost of Gary in the market. Yes, the atom. So, john Dalton, I'll read some things and we zero in. John Dalton, I beg your pardon, is credited with proposing the atomic theory. Yep, he laid the foundation for our modern understanding of atomic structure In 1803, he introduced the idea that matter is composed of indivisible atoms , with each element, you know, made up of identical atoms that differ from the atoms of other elements. However, dalton's model did not describe the internal structure of the atom. So the detailed atomic structure, including the discovery of subatomic particles like electrons, protons and neutrons, was developed later by other scientists. Jg Thompson discovered the electron in 1897. Ns Rutherford identified the nucleus and the protons around 1911 and James Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932. These discoveries built on Dalton's early atomic theory but involved much more complex experimentation and understanding. So it seems like you know what has all of this got to do? Don't worry, like I told you, we'll get there. You know so. But before they got here, two names. You know when we're doing this in school, for your information, I did biochemistry. Yep, you're wondering what am I doing in this space of words, and all that? That's a story for another day. So, geiger masden, in the way we're doing this. Back in school they carried out an experiment the gold does based on ruda fault gold foil experiment in further elucidation of the atomic structure. And when they carried out this experiment there were certain things they did. You know, I'll read it. So in this experiment they fired alpha particles, that's helium nuclei, at a thin sheet of gold foil to study the structure of the atom. Most of the alpha particles passed through the foil, but some were deflected at large angles. So this, excuse me, unexpected result hold on led Rutherford to propose a model of the atom with a small, dense, positively charged nucleus at its center, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. So now the discovery of this, what they carried out, you know, the experiment they did, it was like, don't worry, it's one of those things, it happens, life happens. So the experiment they carried out, they did not really understand it until they took it to, because Rutherford was their teacher that's Gegemash that I mean and he explained what happened and all of that. So but what has Atom? The discovery, the study, and all of that? So let me put it in perspective . When the atoms were discovered, or the atom was discovered, what happened? It changed the scientific field . One thing led to the other. The nuclear bomb was built before you know what world war came and they used it. It changed the dynamics, economies were affected, lives were affected. So one individual is learning, or a group of people, they are learning. Things affected the production, or would I say the economic cycle of the globe. I bring you to why this discussion I'm having it, how learning influences. So in processing it, I ran into okay, I guess I need to put this away. And I ran into sorry, just give me a minute, all right, thank you. I ran into a write-up on LinkedIn by somebody talking about certain agricultural what I call it produce or product within the African continent that we have not harnessed, and before that, I saw this image of university projects. A lot of us went to university and you know what carrying out your project looks like. What's your project, what's your project, what's your project? And I saw this image of a particular school let me not mention their name and they brought out, for the lack of space or whatever projects, students, students, their project, their project work and they dumped it somewhere to burn them. And I was asking myself these are people's academic, should I say, work. They took time processing and all that. It's like a data mine. There's so much in there. How much have we taken from this environment and translate into our production to influence and enhance? You come to see that even a good number of us who went to school like your university degree and all of that, you end up not even practicing what you studied. So in processing all of this, my mind immediately took me to my own project work. As a result of that LinkedIn post, I read about an agricultural produce or product. It's called locally Acha. Now, when I looked at what was done, I laughed. I just remembered immediately this was my project work, so I went searching for it. Yes, that's it, I went searching for it. Yes, that's it, I went searching for it. So I remember in 2000,. I think it was 2003 or 2000. Yeah, but I finished this work in 2004. Anyway, it was time in our final year and we were picking project topics and all that. And I remember very, very well one of my uh lecturers back in school, dr mrs akane. I think she's now a prof. She came up with this topic. She said she traveled to the north to see her sister and she ran into this. Uh, amazing. She called it an amazing uh grain, that the sister was talking about it and all that. She is a nutritional uh, her specialty is in nutrition, in biochemistry. So she was like, what's the name of this? The sister called it hungry rice or something. So she she said, no, we need to do some scientific work on this . So she took some of it and brought it to class and we're just talking about it and that, for all her students, this is what you're going to work on. She did not even know the name, the botanical name, it was just the street name, as they call it, hungry Rice. So people were running away from it anyway. But I said, no, I won't, I'm going to take up the challenge. I think a couple of us there were three or four of us so she broke it like into different aspect that you pick one and work on it. So I picked the effect of cooking and germination, you know, on the mineral composition of Archer. That's the street name, archer. So first of all I had to go and look for the botanical name and it was amazing when I got it and I, you know, gave it to her Digitera exilis she was surprised, yes, it was like really. She said, yes, digitera Exilis. So it falls under what I call it, not Oriza, now, oriza, I think Oriza is rice Oriza Sativa you have cannabis Sativa, that's the, what you call, like what we know as rice reza, but this falls under the I think it falls under the what you call it now, sorghum maize wheat. That family and I remember when I walked on this, I remember what it took me to go through it like try to understand, first of all, its economic value in terms of the potential. They used it for people ate it and they still do. In feeding. It's predominantly within the West African sub-region, in Africa, and farmers use it to feed their animals you know, cattles and what have you then humans also fed on them. They still, like I said, it's still there. I think it's called phonio. That's one name. You know phonio, it's called that. But the botanical name is Digiterra exilis. I think we have two species of it. We have rutundata and we have exilis. So I took my time. Yes, then I I studied in uniport university of port harkett, so I had to make like, okay, where do I do the analysis , where do I go? And my search brought me to abuja, as at 2003, the only lab, you know. Then internet was not this, should I say ramp, as in vast, the internet was pretty. Then we used to go to cyber cafes and all of that. You spend the night. So I ran into someone who was also working on this in Abuja in a lab, you know, and we got talking like exchanging emails and all of that. But unfortunately it didn't happen. So I had to do my analysis in Port Hackett and a detailed work , like starting from the abstract, investigation was made on the effect, you know, the effect of cooking and germination on the mineral composition of Archer Digitera exilis, you know. So the mineral acid for where? Iron, magnesium, phosphate, calcium, using the trimetric method for calcium, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They are all here. I went on to do my introduction, introducing the subject matter, talking about Archer Digitera Exilis, and then I did literature review and all of that. So someone asked what has that got to do with us on the show? Today? I am looking at the potential of what we do in school. How do we translate it into our production environment? Because now we come to see that , like I say, if there's this disconnect I'm speaking for myself now, from I in nigeria, where I where I find myself. There is this disconnect, both in the scientific, both in the art, just name it. We go through school, carry out certain projects, but how do we tie these learnings into our production in terms of economy? Do we have a system? Because if you look at that, even in the West, when they sponsor certain research, you know, and all of that, the sole purpose of this is to have the learnings from this research influence or reflect in the economic outlook of the society, more or less like I will use the word to influence the narrative, to influence the thinking, be it in food, the pharmaceutical, movie industry, entertainment, banking and trade , what have you? They carry out the studies, but for us it's like we just carry out the studies and we dump them , we dump them somewhere, we dump them somewhere, we just dump them somewhere. Now ask yourself this question Do you know where your project work is, as in, do you really know? Do you know where those learnings are, those things you did? But I think if we calm ourselves down as a people and look into our learning and see how we can translate it into our production , we would make a serious change . We'll bring about this amazing change. We would see how meaning and purpose would be derived from there. A wise man said when purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. So we now find ourselves abusing the process. Yes, we now find ourselves abusing the process. Yes, we now find ourselves abusing the process. So imagine what the economic potential will be for digitaria exilis it sounds like one, I love it, that's the name the economic potential in the brewing industry, in the agricultural sector, because you use it to feed your I mean animals and what have you? What else? Where else? Hospitality, tourism? Yes, digital exilis, it has the capacity to do that. A hungry man, they say, is an angry man, but imagine when you feed the man, his tummy and his mind, what he will become. Guys, that's what I came to do on the show today, just to share this with us Our learning Getting into our production. Our learning Getting into our production, because the truth is , the truth is when you learn and you truly learn, and you translate your learning into your everyday living. There is this progress that is apparent. I think this is what divides the West, or, as we call it, the global North from the global South, from the global south. How do we get our learnings into our production, daily living. I won't stop emphasizing this. So, guys, let's go back. Yes, you're in that space, you're a teacher. It's like looking at our educational sector, re-imaging, creating it again, looking at functionality, not just a question of glossing through and running through. No functionality. There's something I learned growing up early in my uh, practice and everything I do, I call it functional approach. I don't do everything, I only do things that are functional for me. Yeah, how will this affect my life? Would it bring the best out of me if I spend 10 minutes, if I spend 10 hours? If not, why should I waste my time on it? So we need to look at that the functionality of our processes from our school, the chambers of learning the way I want to describe it the halls of our, the fountains of our learning and where we are forged our minds, and all that. Because a good number of us just go through the process and we just dump what we learned. Our learning is just through the way, like, just dump what we learned. Our learn is just through the way, like, oh boy, I need to go find money. Sorry, guys, that's pigeon English. Yes, I'm going to look for money and we dump all our learnings and we go after money, but are we better off at the end of the day? Are we money? But are we better off at the end of the day? Are we so, guys? This is what I came to do on the show today to call our minds back to the functionality of our learning. If indeed we went through school and we put our hearts into it, not just to have the paper qualification, as it were, but to have that learning, our minds opened to the possibilities that lie ahead, then, for goodness sake, pick up your learning and make it work. Yes, pick up your learning and make it work. How? Pick up your learning and make it work? How? The way you went about it. That's it. Is it possible? I think it's possible. If the, the atomic theory would change the world, I think our learning also can change our world. We should begin from there, and that is what I came to share with you today. So exciting. You know it took me quite a while to go and dig up this work . Where is yours? This is mine. You know the effect of cooking and germination on the mineral composition of Archer. I still have it. It's just for the want of time. I don't want to go through it page by page, but a detailed work, and I think this work, after we finished this work, it added to my supervisor's elevation to the professorial cather in her own academic pursuit also. Yep, yep, yep. All right, guys, you know how we do it on the show. Like we always say, this is that space where we come in to lean on one another's experience and to forge a positive path. Well, I gotta go Until I come your way again. My name is Amakri. Amakri is away. Bye for now. Well, before I say bye for now, my producers have told me we need to remind you we are available on all the social media platforms X, instagram, facebook, linkedin. We're everywhere. Go ahead, follow us, join, you know. Join in on the conversation. Let's build yes within this space. Go ahead, subscribe to our page and do drop a comment Till I come here again. Bye for now.