“The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence” said Maria Montessori once. Of course, she knew much better than anybody about the value of practical learning and the positive impact it can have on the development of children. However, we at Kidobotikz take a sense of pride when we realize that we have actually taken the type of education that bears her a few steps forward and included more science and math in it than her methods of pedagogy could ever achieve. The result is a rather ever growing pool of Kidobotikzians who develop wonderful working models here at Kidobotikz after learning the concepts in a manner that the conventional model of the education system fails to imbibe.
It is sunday afternoon and all around the city is somber after a tiring week and is gearing up for a new week ahead. However, back at Kidobotikz, the activity is quite buzzing. I enter the exam hall/ makeshift makerspace that Kidobotikz students use to display their prowess in their learned concepts of robotics. For six days a week this place is a beehive of activity with students pouring in from across the city to try out new experiments and apply newer concepts of robotics to add a newer tech-edge to their bots. This weekend is no different.
Meet Vidhyasagar, a 10th grader from Jawahar Vidyalaya. Most students I meet are usually new entrants at Kidobotikz and are usually still in their courses. Vidhyasagar is quite different. He is a veteran here at kidobotikz. Having completed his Graduation from Kidobotikz almost two years ago, he still cannot resist his urge to come here every other weekend. He is here this weekend to try out a new experiment where he builds a bluetooth controlled robot that can be controlled using a mobile phone. For the same, he has already developed an android application capable of controlling his bluetooth controlled robot. While this be a source of wonderment for any onlooker, this is business as usual for Vidhyasagar. He spends most of his time building robots and other gizmos and spends his time working on newer concepts. Thanks to the vicinity of Kidobotikz makerspace to the store of SP Robotic Works, he gets all the access he needs to high end tools that are required in making a new gizmo. He claims proudly that ghe churns out a new project every other weekend thanks to all the support he can get from his parents and trainers at Kidobotikz.
I ask him if he has won any event and he immediately immerses himself into counting. After almost a minute of counting, he says he has won 28 events related to robotics ever since joining Kidobotikz, much to my bewilderment. This robotics whizkid has participated in a myriad of robotics tournaments across the country and also visited Singapore for a robotics competiton where he featured his robot in the open category against other robots in a “Sumo-wrestling”-type format. He regrets losing in that event and hopes to make it back there sometime with a much better bot. He has even visited Indian universities such as NIT & IIT and taken part in events against college students. This wunderkind hopes to study at IIT Kanpur and is planning to start preparations for his JEE from next year. As of now it is just robotics and class 10th studies for this geek who aims to pursue a career in Mechatronics someday.
Happy Roboting ! !
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