“MY FAVORITE SCIENCE TOPICS ARE STATE OF MATTER, ACID-BASE, METALS, AND NON-METALS,”

ANJALI, EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT FROM GMS SANP KI NANGLI SCHOOL

The pandemic has caused some major social and economic disruption across the world including educational systems worldwide, leading to the near-total closures of schools, universities, and colleges. The aftereffects of it also led to the accelerated adoption of digital technologies to deliver education, thereby moving towards a blended learning model. In India, quite a few educational institutes have shifted to online learning platforms to ensure that academic activities are uninterrupted.

Emerging technologies provide an insight into the future of education and many other areas. One such example are the STEM programs which is driving plenty of educational breakthroughs. This program creates the sparking curiosity, nurturing creativity and innovation and instill confidence through hands-on learning among underprivileged children and government school teachers.

Lenovo’s learning pedagogy on experiential learning and critical learning underlines the NEP 2020’s focus i.e hands-on learning, curiosity development, promoting self-learning, questioning capabilities, and self-exploring capacities of students using the digital content to name a few.

By making experiential science education accessible to government schools, Agastya with support from Lenovo has set to impart STEM education to students from resource-constrained communities.

Here is what our students have to say about the program:

Haseen, a student of class eight from GMS Harihera, comes from an agricultural background. When we asked Haseen about the program he said, “Initially I had issues understanding complex concepts at school, but it all changed with Agstya’s Explore play & Learn sessions, supported by Lenovo Foundation.”

Haseen was able to self-learn, develop questioning capabilities, and explore complex subjects all by himself which helped him perform well in my exams.

“My favorite topics include how to operate tabs and computers, lessons on force and motion, concepts like Bernoulli's principle on pressure, Pascal’s law on fluid pressure, etc to name a few. I took part in a science fair, where I spoke about the Newton color disc model and received a participation award.

Agastya's online sessions are fascinating and simple to comprehend and are extremely beneficial to students like us,” he added.

This program has led to Haseen actively participating in classes and have a constructive outlook about learning science with his level of trust and curiosity in research rising. Haseen aspires to become a science lecturer.

Anjali is an eighth-grade student from GMS Sanp Ki Nangli school.

When we asked Anjali about the program she said “I had problems retaining any information taught in my class for a long period of time.

This always discouraged me from being proactive during my classes.”

Her learning began with Agastya, the world of science, through

Lenovo’s Lab on tab program where she learnt using a tablet and got her intrigued with science as a subject.

“Thanks to the Hands-on learning experience which has made it possible. Currently, my favorite science topics are state of matter, acid-base, metals, and non-metals.

My most memorable moments during these sessions were making hydrogen gas to fill balloons by using ingredients available on the kitchen shelves.

My level of comprehending concepts has improved so much that I took part in making the low-cost pendulum and lungs model,” she added.

Agastya sessions are different from other platforms as they are very interactive. Anjali aspires to be a teacher when she grows up.