Morung Express News
Kohima | April 7
Stella Higher Secondary School, Kohima inaugurated its Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) on April 7 by NBSE Chairman Asano Sekhose at the school premise. The school is one among the nine schools in Nagaland to be selected for the ATL scheme.
Sound foundation vital for students
"The country has undergone tremendous transformation in the field of Science & Technology. But for a society to progress in innovations it has to continue its mission and schools should provide a sound foundation to the students. To know the basics and concepts, facilities should be provided for hands on experience,” said Asano Sekhose during the inauguration.
Through a well set up laboratory, the Chairman expressed that students can develop their skills of investigating, enquiring and experimentation thus fostering quality learning. “Laboratory teaching can help learners to develop their cognitive abilities of critical thinking, problem solving, application and analysis. Scientific concepts are better understood if the learning occurs through activities or hands on experience. In today's competitive world where skills acquisitions occupy the top slot, learning through rote memory is a big NO today,” stated Sekhose.
Science education requires creating interest in the minds of students to explore and learn, for which teachers must generate interest and create curiosity. Therefore, Sekhose urged teachers to inculcate interest and creativity for elevating the level of science education in Nagaland.
NBSE promotes experiential learning
In its endeavor to promote experiential learning, the Nagaland Board of School Education has allowed 20 percent or more weightage to project works, practical and internal assessment in all subjects at secondary level. At the higher secondary level, 30 percent is allotted for practical in Science stream and 10 percent in other subjects. Sekhose pointed out that schools should put all efforts to utilize the internal assessment to enhance learning of the subjects in the right perspectives.
To the students, Sekhose noted, “In the pursuit of Science study as a career, opportunities are abound for you. Your scope is limited only by the boundaries of your imagination.”
Turning imagination into reality
Kipangwala Longchar, a class 10 student of SHSS shared her experiences at the ATL lab. “Before I started the ATL classes, my thoughts were limited with glass beakers, fuming gases and bursting bubbles from glass test tubes, skeleton dangling in a hook, but as I stepped into ATL lab I was taken aback with the vision of my imagined lab not turning into reality.”
Moving from the traditional norms of normal science labs of starting with theory followed by practical, Longchar expressed that the lab offered her the praxis first where she could build and create on her own. “A line following robot that I could control with my own Android phone, a home automatic lightning device that I could control from anywhere remotely and the best part was here we build a flying drone,” expressed Longchar.
Thejavino Moa, Administrator of SHSS informed that the school was selected among the 25,000 schools applicants in India. The infrastructure for the lab started in October last year. The ATL is an initiative of the NITIAYOG, Government of India with a vision to cultivate 1 million children in India as neoteric Innovators. The objective of the scheme is to foster curiosity, creativity, and imagination in young minds; and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning and physical computing. Moa announced that the students of SHSS will be among the 1 million students in India.
