Category: Schools

STEM LAND

The vision behind the STEM is learning based on concepts, practical observation & abstraction with the help of teaching kits & technology. In short “Mediocrity to Excellence. It empowers students to use their creativity to solve problems, ask questions and continually learn. The children have boiled down learning rules at STEM Land as – learn something new, learn something old, learn something now. This translates to.

• Old – Fill up the concept gaps in the math which haven’t learnt in last term or year or before.
• Now – Learn concepts or idea which supposed to learn in this term.
• New – Learn something new. It may be curricular or extracurricular.

Activities in STEM land:

We team of six teachers (Sanjeev, Bala, Naveen, Sundaraman and Vaidegi, Ranjini) all Electrical Engineers work with children from 6^th – 9^th grades. We have started teaching mathematics with the programming tools called Scratch & Geogebra.

Scratch & Geogebra:

We have started teaching the mathematics with the programming tools called Scratch & Geogebra. In Scratch, Students have coded many programs which demonstrate the mathematics concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, circle, triangle, fraction, percentage, Pythagoras theorem, square & square root, cube & cube root & algebra. In Geogebra circle, triangle, cone, fraction, percentage, data handling & Pythagoras theorem. Since they had coded the same concept in different tools they got the granularity and became capable of connecting it with many things in real life.

Measurement Equipment:

They had used distance meter to measure the distance to get the sense of meter(m)& kilometer(km), Heart rate monitor to understand the functioning of heart, using temperature monitor they have learnt difference between Celsius & Kelvin, Speed gun and so on.

Montessori & Jodo Gyan Materials:

These materials used to demonstrate the Division, Fraction, Degree, square & cube also gives a sense of numbers (Integers, decimal).

Assessments:

Assessments are conducted every week for the students to notice their own growth (where they can discuss the answer without copy).

Mind storm:

Children had learnt a lot with these     Mind storm robots. Nearly they had built 4 different kinds of robots (also programed it) and one is in progress.

Electronics:

Almost all the children of 7^th, 8^th and 50% of 9^th and 6^th know how to solder. They have built power supply, Battery model with lemon and water, Seven segment display of STEM land using battery power (and later the battery has replaced with solar panel by students) ,Generators & solder more than 50 soldering kits like kitchen timer, claping circuit,  FM receiver and so on. Few of them know how to use resistor & capacitors.

Hardware Programming:

Some of the students from 8^th grade knows how to program Arduino, makey makey and Aravind’s kupta toys. A student worked in Solar panel and made seven segment display to display the STEM land name. Around 25 students are able to do soldering and have built some Electronics & Electrical circuits (example Kitchen timer, Clapping circuits, FM transmitter and so on)

One student from 7^th grade has built a power supply which gives 9V, 8V, 6V and 5V volts as output. A group of students from 9^th grade made power bank to charge the mobile phone.

Software Programming:

Alice & blender are 3D programming. Students have created many 3D videos using Alice. Some of them narrated their own stories too. A student used Alice to demonstrate the (a+b)^3 formula. Blender tool used to create a 3D image for 3D printer.

Games & Puzzles:

STEM land challenges the students in every aspects of their learning (whether it is related to their curricular or extracurricular activities or games & puzzles). Game and puzzles helps them to see patterns. More than 15 students can solve rubik’s cube and 6 can solve within a minute.

Collaboration:

Stem land is the place for collaboration. Students from different school (Isai Ambalam, TLC, Government school of Edaiyanchavadi) come and work together and learn from each other.

Articles on STEMLAND:

There  are two articles on STEMLAND from ‘The Hindu’ and ‘Auroville Today’.

Output:

The outputs of the STEM land are,

• It creates a place to learn many things from many areas.
• Also it set up the place where people learning from each other regardless of age.
• It makes people (children or adult) responsible for their.

Outcomes:

• Continual learning.
• Self-directed learning

The syringe generator from Arvind Gupta’s Toys was made by few students in the 6th grade. They got the required materials; syringe, enamel wire, Neodymium magnets, and a LED. The children saw the video and came up with their own syringe generator. They also noticed that the led only blinks when the magnet hits one end of the syringe every time they shook it.

Along with the sixth graders in Udavi we did an experiment that indicated on how air behaves in various pressures. All we needed was a syringe, and a balloon. and we got started. The children took the balloon and kept it inside the syringe and gave pressure. They noticed that the balloon shrunk in size.

This they concluded was because of the intense pressure it created to the captured air.

 

 

Then they expanded the air and saw that the balloon drastically increased in size, and this was due to expansion of air and created low pressure.

 

 

To print using the 3D printer, we require a software which has 3D graphics and animation. I used blender, an open software that is supported in Ubuntu. Can be downloaded form the following link.

https://www.blender.org/download/

The 3D printer recognises .stl files as input and builds on them .

some useful keys to use in blender:

Shift A – add objects
Tab – edit / object mode
Space – tool selection
S – Scale
A – select all in edit mode
C – select object tool
Alt  + Shift – select all
B – box select
R – rotation, can be applied with axis, + (degrees)
E – extrude, can be applied with axis
Z – Mesh mode / solid
Shift + D – duplicate object
G – Grab can be performed along any axis, and scaling also included
Ctrl B – Bevel smooth edges
Ctrl R – Loop cut
Ctrl ‘+’ – Mesh select

View:

Camera – Numpad 0
Top – Numpad 7
Bottom – Ctrl + numpad 7
Front – Numpad 1
Back – Ctrl + numpad 1
Right – Numpad 3
Left – Ctrl + numpad 3

Subdivide mesh:

1.Edit mode
2.Tools
3.Add

Project a hole or shape in a object:

1.shift + A, choose – curve – circle
2.place where u want it to be
3.on top of another object to be cut
4.Shift and select other object
5.change to edit mode
6.project knife
7.and delete the face

Solidify object:

1.edit mode
2.select faces
3.space select solidify