Last weekend, Preetham, a student of Class VII in a private school, spent his time making the model of a hydraulic motor in the workshop of Science Ashram, an education start-up in Mysuru that teaches the concepts of science through experiments.
Preetham may have studied hydraulic motor in his school theoretically, but by making a model of it himself, he has understood how it functions and its utility in real life conditions. He has moved away from “learning by memorising” to “learning by doing.”
Started by engineering graduates Rohan Abhijit and Dhruva Rao in August last year, Science Ashram today draws more than 100 students mostly from Class VI to X spending a few hours of their weekend time, carrying out experiments of the science concepts they had studied theoretically in school.
“After completing my BE in mechanical engineering, I had several job offers, including well paying ones. But, I felt a vacuum in me with regard to my education. To understand the vacuum, I joined a private school as a teacher,” says Mr. Abhijit. It is here that he realised how much children were missing out because of the emphasis on rote learning. Thus was born Science Ashram.
Students here enrol themselves for two types of classes: Hands-on Science and Makers Class. Students taking up the Hands-on Science programme will be given a kit for conducting experiments, whose final product can be taken home. Under the Makers Class, the students are given the tools and raw materials like wood to make their own models.
Students, who were at one point encouraged to create computer games, are now making their own robots.
“We have created about 250 experiments drawn from the syllabus of Class VI, VII and VIII ready. We are in the process of readying experiments of Class IX and X,” said Mr. Rohan. Science Ashram has a total of 16 staff members including teachers, mechanical and software engineers creating experiments for the students.
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