Educate 25000 Children through Volunteers in India

35 children from six shelter homes (orphanages) across Chennai participated in a robotics expo. The children participated in a workshop by volunteers from Bhumi and Dwengo (Belgium) over two weeks and made their own robots (list below):

1. Scorpion - A robot that runs on all terrains
2. Garbage picker – An automated robot that picks up garbage in its way and drops it at a predefined point
3. Buggy – A four legged bug robot that walks
4. Light controlled waste dump robot – A semi–automated garbage cleaner that picks up and drops garbage depending upon the light
5. Light Eater – A simple light following robot
6. The Phoenix – A robot that flaps the wings at a speed depending upon the light intensity
7. Line Tracer – A robot that follows a black line on the floor
8. Collision avoiding art-bots – A robot that traces its path on white paper and forms patterns by avoiding obstacles in the course

The workshop on Robotics was conducted for under-privileged children to improve their interest in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The project is a winner of Google Rise.

Two volunteers of Dwengo travelled all the way from Belgium especially for this three-weekend workshop; and have trained ten Bhumi volunteers who have in turn helped the children learn robotics concepts and make working models. At the grand finale on Sunday Jan 25, 2015, the children displayed their work at Ramakrishna Mission Students Home, Chennai. 

“The children, although with very little exposure to the computer, could comprehend the concepts of binary numbers, loops, shortest path algorithms and finite state machines with minimal effort. The volunteers from Dwengo put in commendable effort to help children learn these concepts in a fun and interactive way.” says Nithin Krishna, a Bhumi volunteer.

Links:

• Click to view photos from the robotics expo
• Volunteer Account of the Robotics Workshop

During the 2013-2014 academic year, Bhumi’s Little Einsteins Mathematics project was associated with five centers in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, supporting over 150 student beneficiaries between classes 1 to 5.

The Little Einsteins Mathematics project uses an internally developed curriculum, based on materials developed by several organisations. The project focuses on building competencies in core concepts; children’s progress is measured based on parameters such as number recognition, mathematical operations, fractions, and estimation.

Program highlights:        

• Assessments show that the multiplication and division skills of the children have improved remarkably. This can be primarily attributed to the introduction of the mathematics kits.
• Across the classes, there has been 35% growth in subtraction and 25% growth in place values. There has been more than 14% growth in number recognition and addition.
• The children are able to use their basic math skills like counting and number recognition to fare well at higher skills addition and subtraction.
• There has also been a marked improvement in place values. This is primarily a result of kits and equipment which has given them a practical understanding of concepts.
• The growth in counting and number recognition is not very significant as most of the children had adequate knowledge of these concepts. 

The way forward: 

The programme will now reach children in all 10 cities where Bhumi operates. The focus will continue to be on teaching children skills and their growth will be monitored through a detailed skill chart.

• Kids will be encouraged to assess their own work and the work of their peers to inculcate skills of self learning and self assessment.
• Activity based learning methodology that teaches concepts through illustrations will improve basic skill levels of children.
• Continued use of improved kits to provide hands on learning experience and practical application of newly learnt concepts.