Workshop on energy with Transition children

3rd grade children in Transition school are studying about energy and its types. About 19 children came to STEM land to learnt about energy.

They learnt about converting electrical energy to light energy. We started the session by introducing voltage and showed them different types of batteries and discussed about them. We gave them the multi meters and showed to check the connectivity and to measure the voltage. Children measured the voltage of different types of batteries. Then we asked them to light up LEDs and measure how bright they can light up using resistors and batteries. They learnt about +ve and -ve charges and to connect an electrical circuit. Children were able to light up the LEDs and connected multiple LEDs to light to make it more brighter. Then they had some time and they went around STEM land and played some games and were figuring out to solve the rubik’s cube. Children said that they enjoyed working with multimeter, 9V battery, resistors and LEDs. They were able to connect with what they are studying and enjoyed the practical session.

Presenting at Sinthanai Sangamam

Presenting at Azim Premji’s Sinthanai Sangamam, Puducherry in front 500 odd people about STEM land – EBD in Isai Ambalam was a first time experience for me. The speech was in Tamil which made me even more nervous as I am not supposed to make a mistake in it because it comes a lot of baggage. Whereas if it was in English, I wouldn’t have of thought about it that much. I noticed my fear of judgment and I was able to transcend it. Whatever Arun, Naveen, Saranya and I wanted to convey, we conveyed. I thought that our presentation went well and was well received by the audience. We had teachers from Azim Premji Foundation, Puducherry visit us the following week. I learned to be calm and present during the presentation and was not worried about my fear 🙂

Ankit’s visit

We had a person named Ankit who made a visit to STEM land. He has been cycling across the country for the past seven months and has passed through 16 states. He is keen on visiting places where there are different educational systems. He spoke about his journey to children of Udavi and Isai Ambalam school. Children were interested to know about them. I personally was inspired and fascinated by his journey. I learned about different places and how people are helping him in his journey.

At Isai Ambalam school he used the physical clay map created by the children in the 6th and 7th grade and walked them through his journey starting at Jaipur going up to Turtuk in J & K down to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and then to Tamil Nadu. This made what children have created more realistic and children wanted to know a lot more especially about the places with snow.

He also records his journey and is hoping for a Guinness World Record – not his primary focus though. We wish him good luck!

EV3MEG Robot

In Saturday of this week in Isai ambalam school, students are doing different tasks. One group of students was building EV3MEG robot using Build a Robot documentation of MINDSTROMS EV3. The day before (Friday) students had partially completed the Robot structure. Remaining structure of Robot is finished on Saturday and they played with a Robot manual by controlling motors on EV3 brick. Students felt it is annoying and they want It to do task automatically by programming. But there is problem in a laptop which was used to program it. Then they found out LEGO MINDSTROMS commander mobile app with help of volunteer in their school. Using the mobile app (which had GUI mode)  they created GUI command for controlling motors and they connected their Robot with mobile app using Bluetooth and presenting their Robot to all students and teachers in school.

 

Cutting Bamboo

In Saturday school students had different tasks to do in school. One of them was cutting bamboo tree and making them into pieces for putting banner in many places in Auroville. The banner was for Isai ambalam School. The day before (Friday) students had already cut some of the bamboo tree. We knew the specifications of how many bamboo sticks are needed and what are all the measurements. We need to 12 sticks of 17 feet (5 meters and 10 cm) and 12 sticks of 11 feet (3 meters and 35 cm). Students measured the length using tape and cut them using axe ,saw and knifes. While doing this task the students measurements and conversion of feet to meters.

Steps for perfection

Saranya

Everyone wants to be a perfection on their work. We worked through material provided by Aparajita Foundation (that we plan to use with children) and arrived at the following steps that I found useful:

  1. Clarity of what we are doing.
  2. Collect resource materials, organize and execute.
  3. Keen observation and attention to details.
  4. Be conscious.
  5. Time frame.
  6. Check for completion and correction whatever and whenever necessary.
  7. Clean up.
  8. Trust my work but correct if necessary.

One of the volunteers Sahana put the workshop together with the other teachers at Isai Ambalam School.

Scratch and Geogebra course in Savarirayalu school

-Poovizhi and Ranjith

Savarirayalu nayakar govt girls high school is applying for a national award in ICT and asked our support on Scratch and Geogebra. Children from 8th and 9th grade were interested to learn. On the first day we did a scratch course. We gave them a task to ask multiple questions and if the answer is correct it’ll move on to the next question else it’ll ask the same question until it is correct. Children were able to use controls and were able to find the logic. The next two days we did a course on Geogebra. Children first explored all the tools available in Geogebra and then drew an equilateral triangle. Some of the children drew it using regular polygon. Then we asked them to draw equilateral triangle by finding the intersection point. They used two circles and found the intersection point and were able to draw the triangle. Then we asked them to draw different triangles and find the sum of the angles of all the triangle. They found that the sum of all three angles of a triangle is 180 degree for all triangle.

On second day, we asked them to draw circle and to find out ratio of circumference and diameter of different circle.They found that the ratio of circumference and diameter is 3.14 (Pi value) for all circle. Then, we asked them to draw chord line on circles and make a triangle by choosing a point on circles with chord as a base of triangle and measure the angles of triangles. Then we asked them to find out the pattern in triangles in different circle. They found that the angle for all triangle at third vertex point on one section of circle is same and different from angle on other section of circle which are separated by chord line on circle and also the sum of angles of both section of circle is always 180 degree for all circle with different chord length.

Introduction to Analog Layout

saranya

There are many things mater in analog passes for success (I.e noise,bandwidth,amplitude and frequency). I learnt few difference between analog layout and digital layout. Compare to digital layout it occupies less space and looks neat. We started doing step by step orthogonality, fourier series, exponential & expansion as sequence, laplace transform. First we did theoretical part that is Rc (Resistor and Capacitor) circuit with the input of sine wave and unit step function. By using exponential and laplace transform we found the output of unit step and sine wave in RC circuit. Now I have started calculating sheet resistance of each component (poly,metal,contact,etc..) that we will use it in magic tool.

Building an Infinity cube with the 6th graders.

Along with the 6th graders from Udavi school, the children wanted to build something to show to their parents. Initially a few weeks back we had build cubes from chart paper. Then I remembered once Ravi A who had come to Isaiambalam to show his work, had introduced some kirigami and one thing that really got me amazed was an infinity cube he had built. This idea struck me and we along with the children decided to convert their cubes to an infinity cube.

So began the taping cutting gluing job:

 

Sangamam in Auroville

-Poovizhi

Auroville celebrated Sangamam where all the workers and their families from the bioregion  came together and enjoyed the events. It was a whole day of sports, arts and crafts, cultural programs and many more events. We were allocated a stall for STEM land. Three children from Isai ambalam and 4 children from Udavi came and they setup the stall.

We asked people to display their name or their first letter using  the seven segment displays. Children also were playing games like abalone, Pylos, Dobble and gave some challenging activities to the people.Children asked them to solve the rubiks cube and cast puzzles. Children and the adults were happy to these activities. They were able to display their names using the seven segment displays. Some of them were also able to solve the cast puzzles and were proud of solving them.

We also gave a talk about STEM land under unending education. Bala talked about STEM land in Isai Ambalam and the EBD’s we do there. He also connected with his personal life and the education system that he had before and said that he’s happy to see children having an alternative educations. He also added that we can support more children in Isai ambalam school and people who are interested to join their kids can visit Isai ambalam. I talked about STEM land in Udavi and how children take responsibility of their learning. We also said that we offer free courses related to engineering and people who are interested in learning are always welcome to STEM land.

Nilavazhagan who has completed B.Tech visited our stall in Sangamam and was interested in learning more on what we do. Yesterday he came to STEM land and visited. He wanted to continue and started to come from today onwards and was learning things with children.