astronomy

KickStart International

KickStart International is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand KickStart International rather than just read about it. In short: KickStart International is a nonprofit social enterprise headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. KickStart designs and mass-markets climate-smart irrigation technology to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, in order to enable a transition from subsistence agriculture to commercial irrigated agriculture.

Key takeaways

KickStart International belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect KickStart International to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of KickStart International from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

KickStart International is a nonprofit social enterprise headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. KickStart designs and mass-markets climate-smart irrigation technology to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, in order to enable a transition from subsistence agriculture to commercial irrigated agriculture. Donor funds are used to design the irrigation pumps, establish supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers on the benefits and methods of small-scale irrigation.

Background Food supply across sub-Saharan Africa is highly unstable due to its unpredictable climate and water reserves. Only 6% of Africa's cultivated land is irrigated, limiting the volume of crops that can be grown out of season, but increased access to irrigation systems stands to increase food productivity by up to 50%.

History KickStart was founded in 1991 by Dr. Martin Fisher and Nick Moon. Fisher first went to Kenya on a Fulbright Fellowship to study the Appropriate Technology Movement, where he met Moon, who was in Kenya with the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). The two worked closely together on a variety of development interventions, including building rural water systems, constructing schools, and creating job training programs. Out of frustration with traditional development models, Fisher and Moon developed an alternative model for poverty alleviation. Their model was based on a five-step process to develop, launch and promote simple money-making tools that poor entrepreneurs could use to create their own profitable businesses. Together, they founded ApproTEC, which later became KickStart International in 2005. Starting in 1998, KickStart began developing a line of manually operated irrigation pumps, designed to enable farmers to easily pull water from a river, pond, or shallow well, and pressurize it through a hose pipe to reach their crops. Through this small-scale technological intervention, farmer can harvest their crops year-round, facilitating a transition from rain-fed subsistence farming to year-round commercial irrigated agriculture. The MoneyMaker Max can pressurize water to a total height of 50 feet (15 m), pushing it through a hose pipe as far as 200 metres (660 ft), and can irrigate as much as two acres (0.81 ha) of land.

Recognition KickStart has received the following awards: Schwab Foundation's Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs (2003), US State Department "Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls" (2012), Forbes Magazine Impact 30 List - World's leading social entrepreneurs (2011), Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability (2008), Social Capitalist Award Fast Company Magazine & the Monitor Group (2008), Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2005), Gleitsman Award of Achievement (2003).

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with KickStart International

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what KickStart International claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to KickStart International before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about KickStart International ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of KickStart International

In research: KickStart International appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses KickStart International in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: KickStart International is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1991 establishments in Kenya, Charities based in Kenya, International charities, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for KickStart International outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study KickStart International in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what KickStart International means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain KickStart International out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is KickStart International in simple terms?

Why does KickStart International matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study KickStart International?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on KickStart International.