A three-year-long project in Pune aims to train over 400 teachers and encourage STEM-tinkering practices in schools.
A series of five-day workshops commenced on Jan 9 this year as part of the project with selected teachers visiting the IISER Pune campus in batches.
These workshops are targeted at government and government-aided schools to explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activities with low-cost and readily available materials. Teachers performed STEM experiments under guidance from experts and recorded their observations to further explore the concepts, according to an official statement issued by the IISER Monday.
“Making a variety of electrical circuits using wires, prototyping using foam boards to explain mathematical formulae, making scale models of astronomical objects, and lifting heavy objects using pulleys… this engaging list is a part of the activities performed by the teachers during STEM tinkering workshops organized under the STEM Ready project,” said the IISER in a statement.
“Teachers worked on distinctive ideas such as electronics prototyping, controlling motors and LEDs, setting up small ecosystems for observation, soilless farming and using mathematical puzzles to explain concepts. These concepts were correlated with the school curriculum and presented as STEM challenges that can be explored with the students in their classrooms. Selected teachers from these workshops will be offered a seed grant under the project to set up mini-tinkering labs in their respective schools. Further workshops will be conducted under the STEM Ready Project in the upcoming months for the next batch of teachers,” said the institute.
STEM Ready is a novel STEM-Tinkering Project initiated at Smt Indrani Balan Science Activity Centre, IISER Pune, and is funded by Tata Technologies under its CSR Initiative.
