The Agastya’s Campus Creativity Lab at Kuppam is designed to provide children with the best learning environment and equipment. It strives to truly invoke children’s curiosity and enable them to learn by themselves instead of hand-feeding information that students learn by rote for the sole purpose of school. This series of articles aims to provide a glimpse of the different labs and spaces on the campus and how they aid the process of “Aah! Aha! Ha-Ha!,” the Agastya Way of Learning. What does this stand for? The Aah indicates the curiosity one has about phenomena around them. The Aha is for when one conducts experiments and arrives at an explanation for their curiosity. The Ha-Ha stands for the joy gained during this process of learning.
What better space to start with than the Innovation Hub to introduce our educational approach? The Innovation Hub at Agastya is designed to facilitate innovative thinking and use STEAM-based models to solve real-world problems. Here, students are encouraged to look at problems people around them face and develop working solutions. Thus, it is located in a space aptly named “Navrachna” (Create Something New).
Agastya established the Innovation Hub & Design Studio on 1st July 2015 at Creativity Campus, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is a joint initiative of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)- Ministry of Culture, Government of India. National Innovation Council and Agastya International Foundation.
The mission of Innovation Hub is to create innovative solutions for local problems processes of learning in STEAM-based education. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. It is an educational approach that combines logical and creative thinking for holistic all-around education.
At the Hub, students undergo the Design Thinking process — Problem identification, Ideation, Design, Development, Prototyping and Presentation Skills.
The students first identify a problem they want to solve and its different aspects, like who faces the problem, what causes it etc. They then ideate multiple solutions and which one is the most practical. After designing this model and developing a proper answer, the students create working prototypes with materials available in the Hub. They then present these prototypes to the instructors with a detailed analysis of how they work, their usefulness and scalability.
The ambience of the Innovation Hub is such that it helps put students in the right mindset on their journey towards critical thinking and innovative problem-solving. It houses all the necessary equipment and guides students will need on the different steps described above. The place also highlights brilliant thinkers like Kalam, from whom students can take inspiration on this journey.
Overall the Innovation Hub makes children learn the process of thinking, both about STEAM aspects and how they can create a better world with the tools STEAM education provides. It adds to their knowledge, yes, but it ultimately teaches them how to become self-sufficient and take charge of their learning.
The Navrachna space also houses the Design Studio, where children come up with their designs and prototypes under expert guidance, the Robotics Lab and Computer Lab, and Vision Works, the model-making workshop where Agastya’s equipment and learning models are made.
