We often wonder about the traits of successful student inventors. Sometimes, we even think if students can be inventors or not. My answer is, ‘yes, students can be successful inventors if mentors are continually motivating them and providing them with hands-on experiments and learning.’
Experiential learning is a step towards invention. Young minds are often curious minds but many times their curiosity is buried under the piles of rote learning. As mentors, one should always try to make their students tough to tolerate failures. However, they should be groomed to be achievement-oriented. Mentors should prepare their students to face the competitive world and be demanding at the same time. Knowing how to communicate and put across their ideas leads the young ones on the path to success. Mentors OF Manav Rachna International School, Ludhiana help students identify and build their strengths and their virtues. Hence it is a well-known fact that students can be SUCCESSFUL INNOVATORS if they are nurtured with the right guiding lights. ~ Editor
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration – Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison had around 1,093 US patents in his name and is best known for inventing the electric light bulb in addition to the phonograph (precursor to the record player), which was a machine that would record a spoken voice and play it back, and the motion picture camera called the Kinetoscope. When he says, perspiration matters more than inspiration, we have to believe and have faith. Curiosity leads to inventions and innovations but for these, one has to perspire and persevere! Manav Rachna always believes in the motto, ‘Catch Them Young.’ Yes, we sow the seeds of innovation in the student’s minds when they are still in their pre-primary classes, let the curiosity build over the years and blossom, once they are ready to bloom!
“Innovation is the unrelenting crusade to break the status quo and evolve anew where few have dared to go”.
The young learners ought to be regaled as crude inventors – actively canny and with no conclusions. An authentic essence of education should be to create a thirst for knowledge and augment human perception and consciousness towards all facets of existence. Each Earthly entity comprises an unprecedented innovation and in all inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous. Likewise, Manav Rachna International School, Ludhiana has always been convinced by the ideology of providing an unflinching zone of learning to its students and also nourishing them to blossom like a Lily in bloom.
Our concept of educating budding innovators is not to manufacture mere cogs or coiling around the mob mentality but to inspire them to be a more creative and innate genius. Children have an endless sense of wonder and possibility. They have an unlimited imagination and love assembling their own creations, concreting their own worlds, fabricating their own stories and inventing things. Creativity is the ability to think outside the box and innovation is to string two unrelated ideas together in a new way. Invention is the nature of the universe and exists everywhere we look. Inventions are not just the newest gadgets or scientific advancements. They can be simple or complex. Though inventions start with an idea, but its act is more than just a light bulb moment. As compared to the already computerised and technically phenomenal adults, Children have an unadulterated approach towards ingenious inventions, so they hold better chances to bring up novel revolutions in and around the community. It takes both brilliance and boldness to configure an imagination into reality and perception into individuality.
It’s not an exaggeration to mark the brilliance of the students of the best CBSE School in Ludhiana, MRIS, that with their stupendous ideas, the learners here have fetched laurels to the school by grasping the prime position in the display of working models. Our students are working hard on AI- Artificial intelligence, the latest and futuristic techie and are highly motivated by the practical implementations of Tinkering. Learning the advanced languages of ICT such as python and Java for coding the latest applications is a new trend these days and the students of MRIS, Ludhiana are flourishing with this technique and are rapidly bringing forth advancements in their abilities and wisdom. The Z-gen is modified in such a manner that they are accustomed to adapting the facts and figures and simultaneously, they have the urge to explore the truth. A curious and an inquisitive mind is a common quality shared by most inventors who consistently seek to improve how we do things. They are open to change and don’t easily get stuck in a rut of always doing something the same way every time.
The intellectual inventors of MRIS come up with brilliant ideas through bucking trends and fostering creative mental spaces. They tend to believe that applied observation and deep thought is a necessity if one is going to invent something. Having an open mind to many ideas is a key starting point towards escalating new ideas.
Students will ultimately be the ones to “invent” the future.
Creativity, curiosity and persistent efforts with an apt implication of Life skills are the keys to be a successful inventor. To invent an idea, all they need is a tool to be confident and thriving, and those tools need to be instilled from a young age. These include learning and creation skills such as critical thinking, collaborating, communicating, and creativity. Throughout history, innovation has been the cornerstone of our country. By introducing inventors and inventions to students, they will begin to understand the how and why of inventing. Learning about inventing is a fun and engaging way to introduce life skills to elementary students and they will use it throughout their educational journey and adult lives. Notwithstanding the fact that education is just an accumulation of basic information but essentially about enhancing one’s ability to perceive and innovate. A basic habit to carry a pen and paper wherever one goes has been inculcated in the buds of MRIS, Ludhiana as ideas come at the least convenient time!But, when they come, they must be captured while the intensity is there.
Here in MRIS Ludhiana, the best School in the city, the students have been capable enough to claim the sky with their dexterity to soar high. Being an inventor is not a mathematical derivation, wherein one is bound to follow the stipulated rules and formulas. Imagination provides wings to creativity and fuels invention. If we desire our students to respond to challenges with creativity and inventive spirit, we must concoct conditions in which innovation is not only conceivable but also encouraged. Seeking co-occurring opportunities by enduring risks for primitive times, setting transparent goals and being ambitious about the same, being resilient and enquiring about feedback, would accelerate the journey of an inventor.
According to the Torrance Test—which measures CQ- creativity quotient, a gradual downfall had been observed in the stages of inventions in school kids. Perhaps it is because we focus on students’ weaknesses instead of their strengths. In many schools, we’ll put a math genius who struggles with grammar into extra English classes. Should we not give this math genius access to college-level advanced math work and figure out the Basic English requirements he or she needs for a basic understanding of grammar? Why do we think that all students should be good at everything?
One can either be average at everything or exceptional at something. With this in mind, here are some things we need to do to encourage student inventors as we nurture student passions, interests, and strengths.
- Introduce new Ideologies
- Timely Motivation
- Thinking meter
- Mentors
- Opportunities
- Open discussions
- Handling fear of falling
- Redefining inventions
- Rewards
An Inspired inventor, motivated to find new solutions to intellectually challenging problems, Open-minded and unconventional visionaries want to analyze, understand, and influence other people.
Would there be any seeker unaware of the determination and novel spirit of Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk who while being a sophomore learners clutched their hands on the remarkable inventions of the time. They have been self-taught in the area of activity design and passionate about the use of advanced manufacturing equipment. They need to use this passion to rapidly turn ideas into functional and engaging activities for large-volume audiences. Our lives and well-being depend upon our ability to invent a better future. And if we can’t wake up and make time for inventing and creating, we’ll just keep reliving the past. We need fantastic imaginations unafraid of fear and failure, full of yearning to find new things. Familiar examples and notions of rewarded personalities motivate children and pull them through the tanks of creativity to do something different from the on-going rat race to be visionary.
“The greatest invention of 19th century was the invention of the method of invention”.
Every significant invention must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a world that is not prepared for it. If the world were prepared it, it would not be much of an invention.
It is imperative that students are prepared for the future, and learning the process of inventing does just that. By learning about past inventions and applying the skills involved, students will be positioned to have the confidence to create their promising future.
Author
Ms. Satwinder Kaur Gill
Designation: PRT
