Makers'
In this age and time, learning the art and science of technology is as important as learning reading and writing. We are witnessing monumental advances in the world of technology around us and how it is affecting almost every aspect of our lives – including education.
Developing a culture of entrepreneurship amongst the students is at the core of EPS mission as indicated by 3E’s of EPS (Education, Ethics and Enterprise). Author and inventor Chris Anderson noted in his book Makers: A new Industrial Revolution, “the next wave of manufacturing and entrepreneurship will be borne of the talents and shared ideas developed by Makers.” Being a Maker is a mindset that can be cultivated in a culture that support learning through Making.
Learning through Making has the power to revolutionize education by empowering students to see themselves in the role of creators as opposed to only consumers. To truly impact student learning, Making and Tinkering should not be confined to just the makerspace, the classroom, or afterschool activities. To truly transform education, one needs not only build a makerspace but build and sustain a culture of creative expertise, inventive thinking, and effective problem solving. As the Internet of Things extends human capacity to remake and re-conceptualize our environments, learning and thinking like a Maker become increasingly relevant and valuable. Futuristic Schools must build a Maker Culture.
That is the reason we decided to partner with Consilience Learning, a global innovation consultancy, grounded in school-based research and development, in setting up Maker programme at EPS. Teachers were trained and given first hand experiences of what it is like to be a Maker. As a result, various Maker spaces are being set up across the school campus to develop and enhance the environment for making. This programme is exposing our students to low-tech and high-tech making including but not limited to circuitry, coding, computational thinking, prototyping, Design thinking etc.
Various researchers and advocates of maker centered learning have begun to report sets of non-cognitive skillslike inspiration, collaboration, a growth-mindset, motivation, persistence, failure-positive outlook on the world, supported by making experiences. Based on our experience so far, students simply love making and we have seen even the most disinterested students are also showing enormous interest in this new way of learning about developing technologies. With Makers as a guiding framework we have the following facilities to enhance making at EPS :-
1. Google Suite:- EPS is a “Google School” with full access to world class productivity and collaborative tools like google classroom, docs, google sheets etc.
2. Chrome lab:- Research lab powered by fast, robust, efficient and super light chrome books. This ensures that EPS students and teachers don’t waste their time on booting or troubleshooting the machines. Chromebook being part of the google ecosystem helps EPS community access world class tools to enable effective teaching and learning.
3. High Resolution Projectors: – Classrooms are fitted with high resolution projectors capable of projecting HD content using HDMI cables.
4. High Speed Internet: – Internet has become our lifeline. EPS campus has fiber optic backbone. To ensure optimum utilization of our technology infrastructure, we have subscribed to high speed 30 Mbps leased line. This is made available to the student and teachers through dedicated Wi-Fi routers across the campus.
5. Curriculum Planning and Analysis:- Being a continuum school, EPS has deployed Managebac, a world class curriculum planning and Assessment platform to make our curriculum planning and implementation effective. To know more about Managebac you can check here.
6. Maker spaces:- We have allocated dedicated spaces across the campus where the materials required for making like batteries, breadboards, wires, Arduino boards, sensors, motors cutters, glue guns etc. are made easily accessible to the students and the teachers.