Plaksha School Visit

-Ilakiya, Tamil, Rajesh, Sivaguru and Aarthi

STEMland was invited by Plaksha School in Andhra Pradesh for a three-day session to work with students. The school is growing and focuses on children’s holistic development and creativity, similar to Auroville. This marks the fourth school we have visited in the last six months.

During the three-day session, we engaged students in electronics, visual mathematics, robotics, and leadership activities. We also explored how technology is value-neutral and how it can be used effectively.

We began our session by helping students discover their inner values, followed by an activity on calculating electricity bills. As expected, many students were familiar with electronics, but we realized that their existing knowledge could sometimes lead to confusion. To address this, we used visual analogies to explain various electrical concepts, which helped them understand and calculate their domestic power consumption.

Since we remember more from seeing than just hearing, we focused on visualizing mathematical concepts to enhance understanding and retention. Hands-on learning with materials made the process more engaging and playful. With younger children, we worked on multiplying two numbers using Diene’s blocks and Polypad. With slightly older students, we explored fractions using a fraction kit and practiced multiplication with Diene’s blocks.

Students enjoyed learning with these materials and applying their knowledge on Polypad. As the materials and laptops were limited, they shared resources with others and handled them with care. When we introduced electronic activities, it sparked excitement among the students.

On the final day, after a few more electronic activities, we concluded with robotics. With our guidance, students coded using different sensors and programmed robots to follow a mapped path. We wrapped up the session with reflections from the children, who shared their experiences and learnings.

Reflection:

My name is Ilakya Arasi. I stand for kindness and courage for myself and others. I learnt that one of the best ways to make someone feel welcomed when the students are full of excitement to learn new things and love for others. Their curiosity made us learn from them.

My name is Tamil. I stand for currage and compassion for my self and others. This session was a great experience for me. It also helped the children become smarter and kinder.
We did RTL and electronics sessions. The children really enjoyed the electronics session. They were excited and curious in every session, and they learned a lot by giving their best effort. Seeing their curiosity and energy inspired me.
I realized that I also want to learn new things with the same curiosity and effort. This session taught me the importance of staying curious and giving my best in everything I learn. It was a valuable experience for both me and the children.

My name Rajesh and I stand for care and integrity for myself and others i learnt that teaching children basic electronics and mathematics in a practical way makes learning engaging and fun while building a strong foundation for problem-solving and creativity. By using hands-on activities like simple circuits, LED experiments,  children can grasp fundamental concepts such as voltage, current, and resistance. Practical math applications, like measuring voltage, understanding ratios, and using basic algebra in real-world scenarios, help them see the relevance of mathematics in everyday life. Encouraging experiments fosters curiosity and innovation. By blending play with learning, children develop a deeper understanding of concepts which makes them more confident and eager to explore further.

Sivaguru Prasath
During the 3-day electronics sessions, we introduced RTL tools such as Stand and Fear, helping students understand their universal values.

We guided the children in understanding concepts such as voltage, current, power, energy, LED, resistor/resistance, potentiometer, and the 7-segment LED. We also gave them a few activities to complete on their own using the components. The children were highly enthusiastic, interacted well, and gained clarity on the concepts. I also noticed that their curiosity and interest motivated us to teach them beyond the planned concepts. Additionally, we explained mathematical concepts such as fractions (using the fraction kit) and multiplication (using Diene’s blocks)

My name is Aarthi, I stand for equality, integrity and perseverance for  myself and others.  It’s my first time attending the Andra workshop. Students are good in communication, we taught electronics, RTL, Polypad, Snap programming in Finch. Also  we taught Tamil words and they taught hindi words it was very nice.  I got a new ideas and good experience from the workshop.Thank you Sanjeev anna and my team for giving this  opportunity. Thankyou.