Shaping the Future Innovators

Our kids are our future. Aren’t we as parents, teachers and as a community toiling day in and day out to provide our kids the best of the facilities available so that we can unleash the full potential of each child, paving the way for a satisfying and prosperous life ahead and eventually making this world a conducive place for growth for our future generations?

When it comes to the education of our kids, the best of schools and colleges are sought for. It’s a fact that every year thousands of engineers, doctors and various other professionals are being generated but going by the surveys the Indian students, at the national as well as international level, though very knowledgeable are not job ready. 

Being job ready means to possess certain key skills that are expected from them for the entry level jobs. Professionalism, learning skills, communication skills, critical and creative thinking, teamwork and collaboration, self-management, etc. to name a few, are some of them. But ironically these soft-skills developments are not being addressed or dealt with, in the present monotonous and academically oriented education system.

The ultimate aim of education is not theoretical knowledge but action. So, a more futuristic and unique curriculum and teaching policy are the needs of the hour. The conspicuous gap between the objectives of the present education system and of being industry/life ready needs to be bridged.

 STEM education is an education system wherein Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are learned by a pupil in his own learning style and interest. They learn the applied aspects of science, how to think and relate to real life problems. 

The integration of the four streams in STEM plays a key role in making a child understand more about their surroundings, helping them to be creative and critical thinkers. They adapt to work with hi-tech innovations and their problem solving and application strategies get enhanced while learning mathematics making them  analytical and accurate decision makers.

 Rather than the subdued and passive methodology of a teacher standing in front of the kids and conveying knowledge in a one-way path, the kids experiment, collaborate, communicate making them the creators of technology rather than just learning how to be a user. They are thus introduced to the fascinating experiential learning cycle.

1.EXPERIENCE  

2. REFLECT
3. CONCEPTUALISE

4.EXPERIMENT (need to make these 4 into a cycle, without numbers.)

Subsequently providing the kids a platform for their overall development and leading them to play pivotal roles in the development of the country in various aspects. 

STEM Cadets is a NexGen company, imparting life skills to the young generation using this futuristic and child friendly education system. The company has concocted a plethora of workshops for children to acquire knowledge through hands-on experience enabling them to put into action what they learn. 

There are various methodologies being used to impart STEM education in various parts of the world. In India certain companies are using robotics and coding alone. 

STEM Cadets offers futuristic technologies/programs like Basic electronics, IoT (Internet of Things), 3D Printing, Drones, App Inventor and Innovation Labs along with robotics and coding which rouses curiosity of the kids and incites them to enter the experiential learning cycle. 

The target group is grade 1-12 it’s called the K12 segment and the undergraduates. The students are led to explore their area of interest in the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) fields. The team has designed sustainable, inclusive and equitable programs through challenging, thought-provoking fun activities to make kids inquisitive. The kids interact with the experts and get hands-on experience of real time issues and find solutions on their own thus, developing a scientific temperament and critical problem-solving mindset in an integrated manner. 

In the words of Mr. Vipin V K, founder and CEO, the focal point is on experiential learning which is experiencing and learning. He strongly believes that “Students need to be given the chance to Create Technology and not just learn how to use it”. 

The research and development of STEM Cadets started in 2019 in Bishop Pereira Memorial School located near Mangalapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala with around 1200 students. Subsequently after the extensive research of over a period of 3 years the company STEM Cadets was launched in August 2022. Presently they are partnering with schools across Kerala and Karnataka. They are in a strategic partnership with an EdTech Company, EduBrisk Knowledge Solutions which uses an advanced learning management system Engine to deliver the curriculum content; a brain-friendly learning platform where the STEM concepts are integrated with the (academic) curriculum.

Various STEM workshops have been held in different schools. First one of them ‘One Day for My Future’ was held in Paradise Public School, Varkala. To showcase to the kids that ‘There is a better way to learn science, maths’. In similar fashion hundreds of projects have been developed to achieve the goal of helping the students grow in character and skills.

The Founder and CEO of STEM Cadets is Mr. Vipin VK, a graduate in Mechanical Engineering completed his M.Tech in Materials Engineering from the prestigious IISc, Bangalore. He has been involved in the Ed Tech development for 35 schools across India and Middle East and has played a key role in developing more than 300 STEM projects. Recently bagged the 

Young Achievers’ Award - 2022 conferred by the famous INDIAN ACHIEVERS’ AWARD. Mr. Krishnadas Saiju the Co-Founder and the CFO is a BA LLB(Hons) graduate from The National University of Advanced Legal Studies.