S.T.E.A.M 

 

For driving the progress of any nation or society, Education of its masses ranks among the most important factors. Without education, no society can hope of, making any progress in any field whatsoever. This being an indisputable fact, some crucial questions arise from thus.  Few questions which could very well be termed as the scrutinising tools for an entire education system, its credibility and its relevance. Of these the most pressing one being, “Whether or not the student can grasp the concepts being taught to them efficiently?” This builds upon further aspects like “Can the concepts being taught to a student really add value to his future career?”, “Is the way it is taught, really enables the student to assimilate the knowledge easily?”. The answers to these questions are at best, unsatisfactory considering the present way of things. This however has a long standing effect on the nation at large.

The tedious, uninteractive, rigid and monotonous methods of teaching is a remnant of early industrial age schooling system where the whole purpose of education was to churn out regimented batches of workforce who would be expected to just follow orders, do the same structured job throughout as per instructions right until retirement. This system curbs the ability of students think differently, to ask questions, to suggest changes and modifications, as they are taught only the ‘right’ way of things. This not only demolishes the creativity among students blow by blow, but also extinguishes any spark of innovation they might have had at a point. Thus translating into unprecedented losses for the country in terms of innovators, technocrats, artists and so on.

Taking all this into consideration a novel concept was developed in Goa by the stalwarts at CIBA, Center of Incubation and Business Acceleration along with Ryan Vaz of Infinyt 3D.

CIBA being the states first full fledged incubator aims at promotion of startups and industries driven by innovation and streamlining the existing practices, while Ryan is carrying out pioneering work in popularising the revolutionary techniques of 3D printing.

 

Together, they came up with the concept of STEAM Labs. The abbreviation stands for S-Science, T-Technology, E-Engineering, A-Arts, M-Mathematics. Together, these five aspects make up the complete for development of a child s mind since a young age. If one observes a curriculum that an average student goes through throughout his or her school life, these five constitute the entire reach of it.

 

STEAM labs is a project under the TechXplore an initiative under which CIBA and Infinyt 3D in collaboration work on setting up innovation labs in schools of Goa. Infynyt 3D, the pioneers of 3D printing Goa, having started with Manovikas High School, have now set up labs with all the necessary instruments, gadgets and tools which allow the students to work out the concepts they learn in the class through live experimentation and also try out their innovative ideas. For this, the school also collaborates by means of funds and time alloted to every class for its students to explore and use these labs.

 

Equipped with instruments ranging from independent Aduino processors to 3D pens, these labs are designed to cover the full range of the students needs to complement their vivid thoughts and imaginations.

 

The equipment provided opens the world of technological advances in for of robotics, artificial intelligence, designing programmable devices while also allowing them to explore their artistic side through 3D printing and also drawing and bring both these aspects which have remained separated through greater part of two centuries by rigid and divisive disciplines together. When all these five aspects are combined, it opens up infinite possibilities.

 This phenomenon can be clearly observed in any worthwhile innovation that we have had till date, be it Leonardo Da Vinci s groundbreaking work to Steve Job’s iPod revolution. All the innovators have combined Arts, Engineering and Mathematics together through different permutations.

STEAM labs has been created with the same idea and envisions reaching out to every part of the nation and unleash the potential of students’ right from a tender age by training them with an inclusive mindset.

Moreover, Through the TechXplore Initiative, CIBA looks forward to take the labs right into the remote corners of the state, where even the regular technological advancements of the day Still seems like a far fetched dream, owing to various constraints. We at CIBA envision to eliminate this barrier by giving access to and training students to broaden their horizons.