SUMMER OF 2024 || TALES OF SELF DISCOVERY || EXPRESSION 1

Building Skills- STEM Summer Program at MRIS

Every week, we will bring to you highlights of Summer of 2024 programs from Manav Rachna International Schools. These narratives papalting with real experiences will let the readers understand how Manav Rachna transforms its students’ personalities by providing hands on real life feelings of innovation. Here is the first expression of the series. Do not forget to share the link to this wonderful post with your near and dear ones!

Each day we are witnessing huge technological advancements and shifting economic landscapes. Therefore, in these transitional  times, the focus on steering students only toward academic knowledge isn’t good enough. MRIS, the best schools in India, equip their students, right from foundational levels to higher grades, with essential life skills like logical thinking, communication, innovation along with technical and vocational skills, to seamlessly adapt the ever-changing career landscape.

STEM refers to a union of four disciplines for a holistic approach to education, namely science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, that are essential for a dedicated learner or budding professional in today’s dynamic modern world. On an international scale, technology drives global progress, and a solid foundation in these subjects help students adapt to the workforce. Rather than studying the four crucial fields in isolation, STEM intertwines them for solving real world problems, building bridges to the future. The importance of STEM can be understood in its below mentioned benefits-

• Critical Thinking Skills: It is through these subjects that learners are able to develop a comprehensive understanding of complex concepts and are able to apply it to the real world. It helps students to analyse the problem, evaluate and make informed decisions.
• Innovation for the Future: It is of no doubt that children are the future of the country. STEM learning offered by the top international school in India cultivates an attitude of ‘thinking out of the box’ amongst the students, an essential trait to revolutionize the future with their path-breaking innovations.
• Adaptability: STEM subjects not only help the students to use these technological tools, but also creates in them a wider sense of adaptability to the continuously changing reality.
• Competition on a Global Scale: As the world has become a global village and competition has grown by leaps and bounds. This calls for a ‘cut above the rest’ to stay relevant in the coming time. STEM education nurtures essential skills to enable students to gain a competitive edge.

The scope of STEM is immense. From VFX engineers to gaming software developers, STEM careers often have a nexus with other high-profile and exciting industries. Further, a level of literacy in subjects like science, technology and maths, is required for every career, notwithstanding the stream they are a part of.

Manav Rachna International School, Sector 46, Gurugram is dedicated to promote STEM education among its students. Here, it has been a part of the school curriculum from primary school onwards for the past decade and more, aiming to provide opportunities to our students to promote and grow their interest in STEM learning. Equipped with state of the art modern facilities and highly trained mentors, we empower our students to take their future in their own hands, while shaping the future of the world around them.

We are proud to share that the curriculum is aligned with the UNSDGs, thereby grooming responsible, 21^st century global citizens through our Future Skills and Sustainability program. The vision of the program is to evolve education by teaching through experience and inquiry that generates the attitudes of problem-solving, innovation, and sustainability in the new generation.

Tinker Shala and Maker Shala, as part of FS & S programme, are entirely project-based and inference driven to promote scientific temper and scientific approach to problem solving. The objective is:

• To create a community of Makers, Innovators, and Entrepreneurs with excellent critical and creative thinking skills.
• To enhance scientific and technical skills, self-awareness and values, and general awareness to make learners future ready.
• To empower students to solve real-world problems using scientific methods to build scientific temper.

The Maker Shala curriculum at MRIS, a CBSE affiliated school, is aligned with CREST-Science, NGSS, SDGs, Global STEM requirements.

Maker Shala focuses on Design Thinking, Sketching and Design, Electronics, Physical Computing, Computational Thinking, Wood working, Tools and Technology, AI, and Robotics, IoT, AgriTech. Based on recommendations of NEP 2020, NCF 2023, WEF (World Economic Forum), OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), and UNESCO, the program hugely focuses on skill development amongst the students. The students are empowered to practice and apply the above skills with greater autonomy in projects which incorporate design solutions, industry connections, businesses, creativity, SDG plug-ins (economic, social, climate and environmental), self-consciousness and principles, 21st century skills, life skills.

The students work on projects that fall broadly under the following threads (options given in Maker Shala):

1. Agri Tech (Agriculture and Farming)
2. Health Tech and Food
3. Product design (Infra Tech)

The projects are conducted under the guidance of experienced Technical Trainers in dedicated Maker Shala labs that are equipped with modern technical and technological facilities. In Maker Shala labs, children learn the basic science behind technology tools and apply their learning in projects. They use sensors, computing boards such as Arduino and Node MCU boards, CAD and other designing software, simulators, coding environments, 3D printers, laser cutters, and other wood-working equipment to build models and prototypes.

MRIS provides an experiential and application-based way to develop students’ STEM skills, through their Maker Shala program. It should be said that STEM is a lifelong dedication. The rich analytical and critical skills the students develop, and the technological literacy that they incur here, stay with them throughout their lives and careers. The dedication to upgrade these skills, in line with the dynamic modern environment, only serves to bolster their mindset of growth and development.

The Maker Shala program offered by the top CBSE school helps its learners to inculcate various skills, the most prominent of which are critical thinking skills, problem solving, innovation, a go-getter attitude and cognitive development.

Other than the general benefits of a sound STEM education, the Maker Shala programme also fosters in its students a sense of cooperation and collaborative mindset, which are essential qualities in 21^st century citizens.

• As students are made to work in teams to find solutions and innovate, they are brought together as learners and future professionals.
• Students put on their thinking caps and collaborate with their peers, helping them develop teamwork skills which are in demand amongst employers
• Not only do they learn how to cooperate with each other, but students also help raise each other’s spirits.
• Where one learner may face a difficulty, he or she is encouraged to reach out to their peers for guidance and support, and vice versa.
• This sense of community growth and development emphasizes both the collaborative aspect of STEM, while also promoting the individual development of the student.
• Each student is a pillar of the group in their own way, leading them to develop leadership skills and a sense of confidence in their field.

To this extent, we are proud to highlight the achievement of our tech enthusiast and budding innovators in the fields of solar energy, waste management and other environmental solutions in the MakeX championship, FLL (First Lego League) and World Robotics Olympiad (WRO). Over the years their crowning achievements have been on state and national level. Recently our team of students from MRIS-46, Gurugram, Reyansh Vig, Advith Prakash and Aditya Malpani, participated in the National Level of the McMillan Budding Scientist Competition held in collaboration with IIT Delhi. Their ‘Net Zero Home’ competed against 5100 teams and won the First Prize. Also, the team of MRIS Sector 46, the best international school in Gurugram was recognised as top 20 innovators across India at the 5th Edition of India STEM Summit & Awards 23 and this echoes the school’s firm dedication at creating global citizens of the 21st century.

It is of no doubt that STEM education is a cornerstone of societal progress and development. STEM fields highlight global and societal challenges, while literacy in STEM is a perennial requirement for any career. A proficiency in these subjects is not only essential for individual success but also crucial for fostering innovation and thinking skills, and encouraging students to solve the pressing issues of our time. These critical thinking and analytical skills are what help the modern student thrive in their field, while also tuning in their mindset for their future careers. Let the learning continue.

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ADMISSIONS OPEN: SESSION 2024-25 ||  EARLY YEARS || GRADE I-IX & XI || MANAV RACHNA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Author: Ms. Priyadarshini Sengupta, TGT English, MRIS-46 Gurugram