Finding new Makers and real Engineers
It's been a very long time since I've written something here, and whenever I saw Mr. Arjun Krishna he always kept telling me to write something here. Over a period of time, I forgot to write in its organic form as I did before, but I believe it is the right time for a restart. Now we're celebrating the milestone of a century of blogs on our platform. It's a huge gratitude for us (Me and Arjun Krishna) as we planned in the early stages to build a platform like this.
In the meantime, changes are often added to me, also I just left the previous institution and joined a STEM organization. The previous organization that I've worked with is quite equipped with zero business value in work, too much politics, pseudo-agility, and pointless meetings. Technically, challenges or innovations don't matter to them. Whenever I come to this organization, I have to deliver sessions in the STEM field and help and guide students to build a project with students. I used to love this process gradually.
One day, on a super humid afternoon, I'm taking sessions for the 7th-grade students about the need for projects and the relevance of engineers and makers in the world. Casually, I asked the students,
Have you witnessed any real-life problems on your campus?
For a while, I got flooded with the answers, some of them were like 'lack of proper playgrounds', 'lack of swimming pools', etc.
But one fine problem got stuck with me for a while. A boy named Ezekeil asked me:
Sir, have you seen our garden near to teachers' room?
I replied "YES"
Do you know Kunjappan Chettan?
I said "NO".
Kunjappan Chettan is the 'man of this school'. Infact, the most senior man in the school; who regularly waters all the plants and keeps the gardens fresh and alive, and ensures all the plants flower. He is a man who is 65+. Every day he used to climb the garden and water the plants. Can we do anything for that?
This is what I'm looking for in the classrooms. We got ideated, and suddenly our electronics brain came up with the solution of a timer switch and solenoid valve. A real maker mindset and a problem solver mindset from the classroom that I've got.
I'm not claiming this as an earth-shattering one, but a real solution came from a real-life problem in the environment they are living in.
