SAIIER 2020:STEM Land in/near Auroville Schools
STEM Land in/near Auroville Schools
by Abilash and Pratap
Entity::STEM Land was initiated by SAIIER at Udavi School about 4 years ago and has become a self-directed, peer-supported learning space to do projects and to learn Mathematics and sciences. STEM Land aims to support the values of responsibility, equality and ‘courage to create’ in both children and adults. A second STEM Land was also initiated at Isai Ambalam School a couple of years ago.
Some of the Auroville schools have utilized STEM Land at different times over the years including The Learning Community (TLC), Deepanam School, Last School and Transition School. There had been an ongoing request to take up the activities of STEM Land at a location closer to the schools.
So this year we had a new activity of taking STEM Land to Auroville schools.
Description of project:
This project primarily targeted children and youth in and around Auroville schools, ages 8 to 16 years. As with all STEM Lands, our interest was to create open learning spaces beyond a single school.
We presented STEM Land to the Auroville School Board to assess interest and the direction STEM Land should take to address needs of Auroville schools. We further had presentations and conversations with Transition School, Last School, TLC and Deepanam School on the specific areas of their interest. We were requested to give specialized classes, e.g. electronics, programming, physics, projects, tinkering and ‘maker space’ with younger children.
We were offered space in different schools: storage and classrooms at Deepanam and Last School for use with their own students, and a space in TLC that was open to everyone. We choose to set up our materials in the TLC space, and to go to the different schools for their classes as was preferred by the schools. In the first term we set up all our materials and planned the classes.
In the next two terms we worked with Entity::TLC (3 sessions a week, 6 hrs in all), Entity::Last School (1 session a week, 1 hr 45 mins) and Entity::Deepanam (1 session a week, 1 ½ hrs).
With TLC we had three kinds of sessions with children ages 10-14: hands-on projects (8 children participating), Geogebra with mathematics classes (4 children), and Scratch programming (4 children).
With Last School the sessions were on Electronics and Arduino (hardware) programming (5 children).
With Deepanam the sessions were on Electronics and hands-on projects in Physics (14 children in the first term and 18 children in the second term).
The engagement with TLC in the first term led to children getting interested in robotics with Mindstorms (including programming), and coming to STEM land at Udavi to use these (6 children).
To spark curiosity and enjoy an intellectual challenge, we took cast iron puzzles and strategy games to the students of TLC and Last School. The mechanical puzzles required them to be persistent and figure out how to disassemble and reassemble them by rotating, sliding and otherwise manipulating them. Games like Abalone, Dobble, Pylos, Othello, and Splash Attack were also introduced to them. Pylos for example is a deterministic strategy game that requires children to work with and against each other to build a pyramid. These games help them to be focused and curious during their leisure time. In addition the children got an exposure to solving Rubik's cubes.
Here are some examples of projects that children did in each area:
Electronics:
- Batteries and LEDs and building a torch.
- 7 segment displays for writing their names.
- Different kinds of sensors and relays to turn on a motor.
Advanced projects:
- Interfacing BO motor with Arduino.
- Street light model.
- Humanoid and Snake robots.
Physics:
- Hydrogen generator.
- Siphoning between containers.
- Vacuum Lift.
Mathematics:
- Session on Pi.
- Measuring volumes of different shapes (using Geogebra).
- Measuring angles (using Geogebra).
Scratch Programming
- Maze game.
- Fractions.
- Making a calculator and game for arithmetic.
Outcomes:
During the session the students were patient, focused and some of the projects enhanced their logical thinking. The students worked with each other and also shared their knowledge with their younger buddies. We were able to see peer-learning build up among the children.
While doing projects in electronics, the students learned not to be afraid of making mistakes, and that making mistakes is also a part of learning.
During Rubik’s cube they didn’t stop after getting one answer, they looked for the next right answer in which they could solve the cube faster. They were able to see the different patterns in it.
After each class I would ask the students what they learned and how effective they were during the class. This helped them to reflect on their daily progress and notice the gaps within themselves.
Reflections:
The students really enjoyed the hands-on work; I could see them being very focused and enjoying the projects they were doing. They enjoyed learning mathematics through hands-on projects. I could see teamwork building between them. They enjoyed working in teams and were able come up with many different and creative ideas.
With some projects they were able to interface technology with real-life. When students of different backgrounds (TLC children working with Udavi School children on Mindstorms) worked together, they were initially shy to speak with each other, but when it came to work they became focused and shared the different ideas which they came up with.
The challenging part was when the students faced failures or mistakes, some of them gave up the projects which they had been doing and they had to be encouraged not to give up. Initially some children were afraid of making mistakes, they wanted the LED to glow but were even afraid of burning the LEDs. I needed to emphasize that we learn by making mistakes and I gave them the needed freedom without overly instructing them.
Some of the students were not so active with hands-on work but observed well and had many creative ideas in how the projects can be completed, and these were paired up with their classmates.
In some schools, the students were very young and it was hard to make them understand the concept which could be learned through an activity, so I had to guide them multiple ways for the concept to land.
Conclusion:
During the STEM sessions children learned: Electronics, Math puzzles, Science related projects, Strategic games, Cast puzzles, Lego- Mindstorms, Arduino, and Aravindh Gupta toys.
The children enjoyed learning mathematics through hands-on projects and visualizing it. They were focused while working in teams and were able come up with many different and creative ideas. They were interested in solving puzzles such as the cast puzzles which make them curious.
STEM land will continue to be open to Auroville schools in the coming years to build on what was achieved this year.
