Tiruchy to get STEM learning centre fostering students' scientific temper by July-end
The centre is equipped with working models of satellites, drones, and technology to access them, among others.
Published: 20th July 2023 08:01 AM | Last Updated: 20th July 2023 03:54 PM | A+A A-
The STEM Innovation learning center set up at the Adi Dravidar Welfare Girls Higher Secondary School in Kattur in Tiruchy. (Photo | M K Ashok Kumar)
TIRUCHY: The district’s wait for a STEM Innovation Learning Center (SILC) aimed at fostering students’ scientific temper is set to come to an end soon as the lab under the state government’s Vanavil Mandram scheme is set to be inaugurated at the Adi Dravidar welfare girls’ higher secondary school in Kattur by the end of this month.
With this, Tiruchy would be the second district in the state after Chennai to get the STEM lab that the state education department in collaboration with NGO American India Foundation (AIF) has planned to set up in a total of eight places under Vanavil Mandram.
The “one-stop-solution centre” is expected to benefit around 4,000 teachers and 60,840 students in the district, reliable sources said. D Baskaran of AIF said the centre is provisioned with a smart lab (Tech Corner) that can facilitate teachers to conduct techno-pedagogy-enabled classes for students.
"The teachers will receive training on the Digital Equalizer Way of Teaching (DEWoT), enabling them to create visual content on important concepts and definitions digitally," he added. Further, he said students would be introduced to a trans-disciplinary learning approach through robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and space technology along with the STEM incubation workstation.
The centre is equipped with working models of satellites, drones, and technology to access them, among others. “They are the minimalist version of the real ones, and those of satellites such as Femto and Pico type could be made, analysed and even launched through drones," Baskaran said.
"Students who come up with innovations and prototypes demanding facilities not available at the centre would be connected with the experts in the concerned fields through which they could further their innovation to a successful project," he added.
Students from Class 6 onwards would also through 'Role Model Interaction' be provided with opportunities to interact with people who excelled in the STEM field. Around 10 resource persons would be deployed at the Tiruchy centre to facilitate the training process.
District Chief Educational Officer (CEO) M Sivakumar said, "Such steps help in imparting practical knowledge apart from the syllabus and it is welcome if such centres come up in more schools."
