By Bridget Horkan | Co Founder
Thamarai student Ilakiyan cycles each evening for 45 minutes both ways to attend STEMland where he spends 3.5 hours learning computer coding and mixing with older students and computer programmers. Ilakiyan says “I really like this experience which starts with an hour of Badminton before a self-learning program in the coding language Python”.
STEMLand is a learning and resource center specialized in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) situated in nearby Udavi and Isai Ambalam schools. The values that are important are responsibility, equality, and courage to create with an emphasis on learning through building or creating something to demonstrate learning. It is a quantum shift from Ilakiyan's school experience where all things related to computers are taught from a book with little hands-on experience.
Vishnu, alumni of Thamarai, and a full-time team member is spending a three-month period training at STEMLand so he can be the team lead for the Science, Technology, Electronics, and Maths classroom that is currently being built in the new Thamarai Learning Centre in Annai Nagar village. This facility will support the 90 children attending Thamarai to deepen their contact with digital literacy and learn the joy of coding. It will enhance information and communications technology, logical thinking, and the development of the critical and synthesizing mind. We look forward to both Ilakiyan and Vishnu being back at Thamarai to bring their expertise and passion for technology learned from the STEMlanfd team to us and bridge the digital divide for rural village children in Tamil Nadu, India.
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