The Bangalore-based Ankurit Foundation and Dell India are organising an Escape Velocity — Innovation, Science and Technology Fair in Bangalore from June 13-15 for children in the age group 6-17. Conceptualised by technologists and scientists of the Dell Corp, USA, the fair will convene several private and public science and technology organisations in the city under one roof for the first time.
“The fair focuses on bringing technology closer to children. Hence the foundation has roped in top-notch IT companies to introduce their patented technologies to children. Demo booths of sponsor organisations will explain state-of-the-art technologies in the fields of medical advancements, technology in retail industry, internet of things, genomics, astronomy, etc,” says Shalini Kapoor, director of Ankurit Foundation.
The venue of the fair is the Oakridge International School campus, Sarjapur Road, Bengaluru. The fair is a ticketed event and tickets can be purchased online at mycity4kids.com. However, entry is free of charge for government school children.
For further information write to escapevelocityfair@gmail.com.
Scratch Ninja programme
The Chennai-based Money Wizards Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2011), a financial literacy and money education company promoted by IIM-Bangalore alumni Venkatesh Varadachari and A. Thillai Rajan, is set to launch an innovative learning platform for school children named Scratch Ninja this month (June). Scratch Ninja is a structured programming curriculum which uses Scratch — an open source software platform and learning tool created by MIT Media Labs, USA — to enable children in the age group 6-16 to better understand science, maths, English and other subjects through interactive projects, games and animation.
“Our aim is to bring Scratch, a 21st century education tool widely being used by children in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Finland and other countries, to Indian schools. The scratch programming curriculum that we have created is aligned to CBSE and state board syllabuses and can be used by all schools with computer labs. This revolutionary programme can make learning fun and easy. Children learn to share their work, collaborate with peers in India and abroad, and with other members of the international community,” says Varadachari.
Somaiya School inauguration
Surrounded by children playing the Lezim, on May 31 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama inaugurated The Somaiya School on the Vidyavihar campus (Mumbai) of the Somaiya Trust. The 65-acre Vidyavihar campus of the trust hosts 34 humanities, engineering, medicine, education, medical, business management, pure sciences and mass communication institutions with an aggregate enrollment of 27,000 students mentored by 1,700 faculty.
The CBSE-affiliated Somaiya School has been constructed on a three-acre site within the Vidyavihar campus, and has a built-up area of over 100,000 sq. ft.
“The focus of our school is to invest children with knowledge, life skills and self-esteem. We will attain these objectives by creating an environment that encourages academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular excellence,” says Amrita Somaiya, managing trustee of The Somaiya School.
CBSE-CAER conference
To explain and debate the essential and critical role of assessment in education, the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Centre for Assessment, Evaluation & Research (CAER) convened a CBSE-CAER International Conference 2014 in Delhi on April 28-29. Delegates included academics, policy formulators, school educators and teaching-learning experts from across the country.
“The purpose of the conference was to update participants of the widening gap between conventional assessment systems and methodologies and new systems and tools being adopted by schools and educational institutions in India and abroad. This collaborative effort of CBSE and CAER provided a platform for knowledge exchange, sharing and dissemination,” said Dr. Sarita Manuja, director of CAER, a not-for-profit PPP (public-private-partnership) between CBSE and the London-based Pearson Foundation promoted in August 2012.
Knowledge without Boundaries initiative
The Rotary Club, Madras (East), in collaboration with The Hindu, Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB), Tree of Knowledge, and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, launched a nationwide programme for significantly enriching and improving learning outcomes of school students in Chennai on April 22. Christened ‘Knowledge without Boundaries’, the programme is designed for state and local government schools. Moreover, schools under Bhavan’s Chennai Kendra will also be part of the programme.
The ‘Knowledge without Boundaries’ initiative includes quiz programmes, induction of computer-aided games for building vocabulary, and knowledge and laboratory sessions to improve spoken English. Moreover, Encyclopaedia Britannica India will provide inputs to empower teachers to introduce inquiry-based learning and pedagogies.
To enhance the reach and widen the impact of this initiative, EB has permitted a translation of its Know for Sure general knowledge book series for class I-VIII students, authored by ace quiz master Siddhartha Basu, into several Indian languages.