~ Jayabharathy, Arunkumar, Poonguzhali, Soundhariya, Gunavathi, Poovizhi
From September 30, 2024 to October 4, 2024, a group of students from Arulvazhi School visited STEM Land to explore and learn about various STEM activities. We warmly welcomed them and began the session with “Stand and Fear.” Through this activity, students reflected on their full potential. These sessions helped break barriers and encouraged teamwork. Each student introduced themselves and shared their qualities in unique ways. When students shared their fears or challenges, it created a sense of connection and understanding among them. This openness encouraged care and love, allowing participants to see each other as individuals rather than just classmates/schoolmates.
Children said that, they were able to realize who they were from deep inside. They mentioned that the socialized fears were prevalent in their everyday lives and they wondered how they failed to notice them before attending the RTL session. The tools helped them notice, name and let go of their fears and helped them to understand who they from possibility. One of the students mentioned that RTL was more related to life than the usual lessons they learn in classrooms.
After the RTL session, the students eagerly explored different STEM activities such as Scratch programming, Electronics and Robotics. It was a memorable experience for both the students and our team. Initially, we started teaching electronics as they were keen to learn it. The session began with an introduction to basic terms like resistance, current and voltage.
They learnt about resistance and measured their body resistance using a multimeter. They also learnt how to light an LED with the help of a battery and a resistor, and even through their body. Following this, the students had time to explore Scratch programming and were given simple tasks to accomplish. They had the opportunity to work with Makey Makey, which helped them understand conductors and non-conductors.
They were able to apply their Scratch knowledge in their Makey Makey projects. Additionally, they were introduced to Finch robots and were able to control the robots by creating simple programs using the Snap app. On the last day, the students explored the games available at STEM land. We observed teamwork throughout their visit. All these activities helped the students improve their knowledge in various domains, and for many, it was their first exposure to such technologies. Their active participation each day fueled our enthusiasm for teaching.
At the end of the session, children were asked to give feedback regarding their learnings at STEM. They said that they got an opportunity to explore material-based learning. It helped them to understand the concepts better and in an easier manner. They also said that the method of teaching both electronics and programming helped them to think more. They were able to find out solutions from their learnings without the answers being directly given.
Reflection from Madhivadhani S (Student from Arulvazhi):
The learning sessions at STEM was very useful for me. I learnt to make sounds using makey makey, program a robot and to code in scratch. The activities made me think a lot. I could visually see the outputs in scratch coding. It helped me correct my code by the movement of the sprite, when it did not do what I expected it to do. When I made a mistake, the teachers did not tell me the right answer directly, instead they gave clarity on why my answer was wrong. This helped me find the right solution by myself. The learning session gave me a platform to do peer learning. It helped to get along with my friends by helping each other which made the learning much easier and more interesting than the usual individual learning.
Reflections of facilitators…
Jayabharathy:
My name is Jayabharathy. I stand for care and courage for myself and others. The session with the Arulvazhi school children gave me an opportunity to work with children of different grades simultaneouslyrather than a single grade. Through this event, I learnt to change my level of explanation as per the understanding capability of children of different age groups. I also learnt to maintain a domination and groupism free learning space. I initially went there thinking I would support them for an hour or two. However, their eagerness to learn about electronics and Scratch motivated me to assist them throughout all the sessions they attended. I could see the joy of learning among the children as they made the LED glow using a battery, resistor, and wires. I also observed peer learning among the children. The older ones gave space to the younger ones and helped them accomplish tasks. These were valuable lessons that I intend to incorporate into my own life as I work with my team and juniors.
Arunkumar:
My name is Arunkumar I stand for Peace and Equity for myself and others, I supported Arulvazhi children on electronics and Makey Makey sessions, it was an interesting session. When we asked children to taste the current, initially hesitated out of fear they were then able to transcend it and taste the current. The children were from 4th grade to higher secondary so I assumed that only the elder children will learn more and won’t work along with the younger ones, but they were actually inspiring the young ones and shared their learnings and guided them to participate fully.
Poonguzhali:
My name is Poonguzhali I stand for courage for myself and others. I volunteered to support the holiday camp whenever I had time. As a team, we worked to our full potential, children took part in many activities they enjoyed. I feel grateful for being a part of the camp as it allowed me to interact with children in the during the break and I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent supporting it.
Soundhariya:
My name is Soundhariya. I stand for care and courage for myself and others. I saw that the children were able to understand concepts and learn how these ideas connect to concrete visualization and everyday life and it madelearning more effective and fun. Using hands-on tools allows children to grasp concepts more quickly and enjoy learning.
The sessions had a positive impact on students and it helped them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. I was able to notice this during the LED experiment. I gave an introduction about the terminals of the LED, the battery and resistance. With this information, they were able to make the LED glow from light to dark through the help of different resistors. This approach also encouraged collaborative learning with others.
When students actively participate in STEM activities, they become more aware of their own progress. As I was teaching them operate finch robot, they said the coding that they learnt the previous day in scratch helped them to do the finch activity. They also said that they were able to notice their improvement as they moved from scratch to snap. .
Gunavathi:
My name is Gunavathi, I stand for happiness for myself and others. While I was teaching students about finch robot 2.0, I felt responsible. When they understood the concept of move and degrees, I noticed children being curious and enthusiastic. At that moment, I understood inspiring children will lead them to learn themselves.
Poovizhi:
My name is Poovizhi, I stand for equality and equity for myself and others. Arulvazhi school teachers were inspired by the sessions we did during the STEAM camp we did during the summer and they have heard from children that they are interested to learn more from STEM land, so the teachers contacted me and asked if we could have a one week program for children during their quarterly leave. STEM land is open for anyone at any age who wants to learn and organised for the transport and the sessions. I feel grateful that I was able to coordinate and organise the session. I saw the joy of learning in children.