Tinkering means an attempt to improve something in a casual way. It is an effort to better things or to make things work better in an amateurish way. Tinkering labs being planned in the State under the Samagra Shiksha Keralam will be a translation of ideas from the conceptual level to the practical.
Children in classes 6 to 12 will be able to work with their ideas in the laboratories being established now across the State under the Samagra Shiksha Keralam programme. It is expected that there will be three such laboratories in each district. The laboratories will emphasise on electronics, artificial intelligence and robotics among other areas to help students focus on the latest technology trends, sources in Samagra Shiksha said.
Experimenting
The tinkering lab will be a space for testing the affinity for experimenting with ideas that have been developed by students at a young age. Government Higher Secondary School at Kuttamassery, near Aluva, and Government Higher Secondary School at Paravoor in Alappuzha have seen these tinkering labs being readied for functioning. It is expected that more schools will have such facilities by the end of May this year.
The laboratories would address a whole range of issues like management, problems caused by a pandemic situation, three dimensional printing, artificial intelligence, deployment of robots and sensor technologies, sources added.
While these new laboratory facilities will be open on school days, they will remain open to curious students and those interested in exploring new pathways during the weekends on the basis of a time-table fixed by the school authorities.
The basic idea is to use the curiosity and abilities of students in such a way that social progress can be aided using computational skills and the energy of the young people. The labs will also be platforms for students to discuss their ideas, explore new avenues, training, competitions and promotion of their ideas.
