Created on the campus of IIT Kanpur by three masterminds of the Institute of imminence, STEMpedia is the brainchild of innovation to make education on par with technological advancements. The goal is simple –
Making STEM education accessible to all students across the globe and enabling them to become the innovators of tomorrow by imparting quality hands-on learning and providing them with world-class hardware and learning resources.
STEMpedia, as a conglomerate, has been quite active in practising, professing, and propagating experiential learning in STEM since its genesis. We have brought about change in the lives of many students across a host of 40 countries. So what exactly is it that we do to make STEM learning more accessible in the most fun, DIY-friendly way? Let us find out!
The Gizmo Galore
STEMpedia came into being when an electronic device by the name of evive came into the picture. The tool was meant to be a compact electronic prototyping device for anyone who wants to build robots; a with Plug-and-Play interface catering to every learning, building, and debugging need. With more exploration came the genesis of STEMpedia which exploited the amazing tech friendliness of evive and gave its abilities to create robots in simpler means. evive is now the base of STEMpedia’s robotics kits.
One of the most amazing inventions by STEMpedia has to be the evive Starter Kit. It’s the perfect companion for beginners for all their DIY needs. Students can improve their learning experience while also learning the basics of connecting, for example, their smartphones with an overhead projector. This gives room for a richer and more interactive discussion over a range of topics. Students also get a chance to work on their ideas so as to turn them into projects and implement them in their homes, residential societies, and school buildings. evive promotes the sharing of innovative ideas on something as basic as lighting automation to multitasking applications in the irrigation system of larger areas of an educational institute.
But this is not all. STEMpedia has a variety of interesting kits ranging from the robotic arm and IoT to Biotech and Biomedical.
Robotics and STEM go hand in hand and it is one of the finest ways to learn all things STEM. STEM exploits the interdisciplinary edge given by it and hence making it the base of how DIY learning evolves among the students who are associated with it. STEMpedia does the same, by giving the associated students the edge of robotics and readying them for a tech-savvy tomorrow.
Robotics also brings in the need to program devices. Programming is indeed something that everyone should learn. It is indeed impossible to go through all the nuances and niches of the syntax of programming an Arduino based tool in a few days’ time and let the students actually learn how to effectively build a bot. This simply means that students need a programming platform which enables them to learn the logic but also skip the “not so necessary” niches of syntax at the elementary and high school level. We enable them to do so using our amazingly built graphical programming based platform called Pictoblox.
To go with the programming platform and the kits, we have also developed our own application called Dabble, a project-making mobile application perfect for everybody’s DIYing needs, be it a student, a teacher, or a hobbyist. It transforms your Smartphone into a virtual I/O device and lets you control hardware via Bluetooth, communicate with it, access sensors like the accelerometer, GPS, and proximity and other features of your Smartphone. It also provides you with electronics, robotics, and IoT based projects compatible with Scratch and Arduino to help learn by doing.
Damn, we do have a lot of gadgets for you to explore. But what follows, makes us the only one stop solution for all things STEM.
Courses and Pedagogy
But we just don’t stop once the tools are given. We believe the right knowledge with the right tools gives way to the right thinking that is needed to solve problems in the modern world. Students are also given the provision of courses which are custom-made for them. They can learn at their own pace and make the best out of the courses.
Come to think of it, learning robotics at the elementary level can be quite overwhelming for students who venture to take the path alone. The sheer volume of prerequisites can undermine confidence and take away a lot of the spirit of learning by the time the core of robotics is reached. Many students, not only at the elementary level, experience this issue which brings the need to have a strong set up which helps us deal with these overwhelming chunks of information and then also not forget to innovate and see the theory turn into tangible reality.
STEMpedia does just this. With the courses we have to offer, students can easily learn everything they must before jumping into robotics, and more. The teaching and innovation go hand in hand, and no child is left behind.
Apart from the courses, there are numerous lucid and self-explanatory tutorials, exciting DIY projects, and other numerous informational guides that are ideal for kick-starting the journey into the world of DIY.
Tinkering and Labs
But wait! That’s not it! STEMpedia makes its mark on the pages of the history of pedagogy by being directly involved in the school curricula of the schools that take its benefits. With the help of a program called Atal Innovation Mission under which the Government of India has given the provision to set up labs, known as Atal Tinkering Labs, in many schools across India.
Tinkering, in its essence, is just the act of fiddling around with technology to build, repair or innovate. Such an environment which enables students to build, repair and innovate in a more casual way than an extremely structured way makes tinkering an activity more fun and less rigid. Students explore new things as they create and destroy. This learning is of the essence as the students are essentially taking a subjective experience of knowledge and this makes the entire play a win-win situation for the education stakeholders.
A Community Effort
STEMpedia does not stop until the learner has everything she needs. Now that one has access to the right tools, right theory, right teaching, and the right environment, what else can she need? In case you did not have it figured, a Peer-to-Peer Community is quite essential in making the circle of learning complete. STEMpedia’s community, affectionately called The STEM Club, enables students to share their knowledge and learn from that of the others.
In A Nutshell
STEMpedia is bringing the best of its technology (hardware to apps), labs, courses and community to you for making learning more fun and experience based. The subjectivity of learning is something we need to explore and make the best out of, to make a strong workforce. We have everything you need to become the professional you dream of being. Come to us, and we shall transmute your dreams into reality!
