STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, is a concept that has been widely prevalent globally. The major focus is on young school students who can develop STEM skills and pursue careers in the same. It is important that students develop critical thinking skills at a young age. It is also vital that they appreciate the idea of innovation and application of scientific principles. STEM learning can help in this regard.
As a country, the National Education Policy 2020 does focus on such interesting ways of making education come alive. Experiments, latest technology, quizzes, and developing applications are part of this. A huge population that is young and open to innovative and hi-tech ideas will benefit from an early introduction to STEM. To spread the idea effectively amongst youngsters, especially those from less privileged backgrounds, Smile Foundation has been facilitating STEM sessions in schools. These are managed by their various NGO partners as a part of their Social Venture Philanthropy model.
Advantages of STEM learning
- Bridges gender gap and motivates both boys and girls at an early age to participate in STEM initiatives and hone their skills.
- As more children start showing inclination towards STEM-related studies, the talent pool for the country will increase and there will not be a dearth of scientific minds in our country.
- When youngsters start showing an interest in latest technologies and scientific developments, the country progresses in a more effective way. Generations of children become more and more advanced in their skill sets.
- With increased awareness, both public and private entities will invest in STEM. This will create new avenues of employment for a large pool of children as they grow into intelligent young adults.
- Recently, Arts has also been added in STEM, making it STEAM. This ensures holistic development of children. We should see a future generation that not only possesses a scientific and technical bent of mind but is also extremely conscientious in their outlook.
RoboClub in association with Child for Child
Keeping all these aspects in mind, RoboClub, a premier STEM and Robotics Institute in New Delhi was formed by Ms. Sunaina Sood. This institution works towards promoting interest amongst children in computers, critical reasoning, robotics, and experiential learning. In addition, RoboClub organizes the STEM quiz which was conceptualised by Shivansh Gupta, a student of Grade X DPS RK Puram, New Delhi. This is an annual event for RoboClub and this year they organised it in association with Smile Foundation’s Child for Child team.
STEM learning through RoboClub quiz
The STEM quiz was promoted and conducted by six highly committed and tech-driven high school students from RoboClub’s Team Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The team includes Shivansh Gupta; Jai Gupta of Grade IX, SBS Noida; Sameeha Sood of Grade X, SBS Noida; Madhav Agarwal of Grade IX, SBS Noida; Vansh Gupta of Grade X, The British School, New Delhi; and Shorya Bhasin of Grade X, TSRS Moulsari, Gurgaon. The quiz was organised for primary and middle school students separately. Questions were in the areas of science, math, technology and computer science, logic and reasoning pertaining to the two grade levels. The initiative was aimed at getting youth to participate and test their STEM skills, inspiring them towards hands-on learning and creating more awareness of the importance of STEM in school children. The RoboClub team plans to conduct more such events in association with Smile Foundation to inspire STEM and hands-on learning amongst the less privileged.
The results for the quiz competition have been declared and the winners have received their certificates and prizes as well. Winners from primary school category areDevaansh Bhardwaj, VardaanMukerji, and Angel Kaur. Winners from the middle school category are Arav Bansal, Anant Agarwal, and Shreya Nair.
We wish the organisers and winners many congratulations! And we sincerely hope that more youngsters find STEM/STEAM a more exciting journey to undertake and build a brighter and a more hi-tech future.
