Schools in J&K, Chhattisgarh to replicate key components of Atal Tinkering Labs of Andhra Pradesh

UNICEF teams from Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh visit Andhra Pradesh to study and replicate innovative Atal Tinkering Labs.

Teams of officials, teachers and representatives of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) from Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh on a two-day visit to Andhra Pradesh to study the functioning of the Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) established as part of the Central scheme Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in schools across the country have decided to replicate some distinctive components of the A.P. model in their respective States.

ATLs are meant to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning and physical computing.

Impressed by the manner in which the UNICEF has facilitated collaboration of the ATLs with the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE), the Board of Community Development through Education (BCDE) and Vigyan Ashram, a Pune-based organisation, to explore the possibility of engineering and diploma institutions and ITIs with the ATLs to strengthen the ecosystem for innovation in the State, the visitors said they would replicate this collaborative mode in their respective States.

There was unanimity among the teams that integrating the curriculum with the ATLs is key for the success of the ‘tinkering drive’.

“In Andhra Pradesh, we have undertaken a mapping of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curriculum with the ATL to facilitate use of the ATL space to illustrate selected competencies from the NCERT curriculum across different subjects,” said UNICEF Education Specialist for Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, Sheshagiri Madhusudhan.

“While curricular integration of the ATLs is important, it must be noted that the ATLs are not only intended as spaces to illustrate the curriculum but also to break the curricular boundaries through the application of a design thinking process,” he said, suggesting that teachers can explore how the ATL space can help explain concepts in different subject areas.

The deeper objective is to apply the understanding to solve real-life problems. “ATLs bring a new dimension to learning, moving away from the traditional exam-focussed learning,” he said.