Frequently Asked Questions
What is Tinkering course for ATL Students?
This TINKERING course is an online learning program for the students of Atal Tinkering Labs who want to learn tinkering and practice innovation. This course is structured in a three-tier system that is as follows :
- Beginners Level Tinkering
- Intermediate Level Tinkering
- Advanced Level Tinkering
The mission behind this course is to support the student of Atal Tinkering Labs. in different schools across the country.
Atal Tinkering Lab is one of the best educational initiatives taken by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog. It is a unique way to encourage students and engage them to learn new skills to enhance their career in the schooling day.
As a mentor of change for Atal Tinkering Labs, I have conducted the mentoring session and interacted with thousands of students in different schools and realized that the students want to actively take part in the tinkering process and practice innovation. But there are many issues needed to be sorted out.
- Students do not have any knowledge about basic electronics components. They need guided sessions to become confident about using those components.
- They do not know about Arduino & coding, and how to make basic electronic gadgets using Arduino.
- Most of the students watch videos on YouTube to learn Arduino programming but they find it difficult to apply what they see in the video and when they practically try to experiment. There is no such scope to ask any question about their doubts to the person who has created the video.
I have created this course with the main objectives:
- To provide an easy and comfortable learning environment where students can learn from the place where they stay and the time when they want.
- To listen to the problem student come across while making an electronic gadget and to provide necessary supports and help them solve the issues. As there are different technical issues that arise when the students work on Arduino Projects. It may be while
- Drawing the circuit diagram,
- Connecting the electronic components,
- Writing the code or running the program,
- Calibrating the sensor’s value,
- Collecting the data from the sensor and manipulating the data to perform particular tasks.
What am I going to learn in terms of content?
You will learn all the modules mentioned in the ATL Curriculum practically.
After completing this course, you will be able to use the tinkering and ideation process to identify the problems and work individually or in groups to find solutions using the Atal Tinkering Lab equipment available in your school.
During the course, you will be confident enough to take part in the ATL Marathons and other competitions as you know the process of tinkering and ideation, and how to find the solution to a particular problem.
This course is designed into different modules according to the ATL curriculum to ensure that as a participant student you can develop knowledge and skills gradually and become independent innovators.
Apart from that, you will also get support from time to time when you will be working on a live project / preparing for ATL Marathon.
The course includes the following modules.
- Basics of Electronics Components
- Basic Electronic Concepts
- Breadboard and PCB
- Paper Circuit
- Measurement Tools
- Observing safety & Security
- Computational Thinking, Algorithm, and Flowchart
- Sensors & Actuators
- Physical Computing
- Arduino Hardware & Software Installation
- Soldering
- Arduino Projects.
- Raspberry Pi Hardware & Software Installation
- Raspberry Pi Projects
- 3D Printing
What concepts will be fundamental or prerequisite?
This is an all-inclusive learning program designed for the school students, so there is no such special requirement needed. I have arranged the modules including the fundamental concept required to understand, create and apply.
Only three things will be required:
- A laptop/Computer
- Kit
- Internet connection
To access the course you need to have a computer/laptop (A mobile phone can be used to access the tutorials but for coding and burning the source code to a microcontroller a compute/ laptop is required.)
What information will you provide, or will students need to access and how?
I will provide video lectures, assignment explanation videos, practice worksheets, source code, and circuit diagrams through Learning Management Systems. All the students will be provided with the ID and password to access the course materials. They can access the course from a laptop or mobile phone from anywhere and at any time they want to access it.
What will students need to do or produce, as well as when and how?
Every Monday, the weekly module will be released and the student will be notified through E-mail and the Telegram group.
First, they will watch the main video lecture and go through the practice session if there is any practice activity given with the module.
If they find any difficulty, they can watch the video again as all the practice sessions are designed to ensure that students are watching the videos attentively.
If still, they have any doubt then they can send their questions to the link that will be provided to them after joining the course. And I will answer all the questions one by one on the live webinar.
Second, they will check the assignment of the week and watch the assignment explanation video. Then start working on the assignment and if they have any questions then they will submit the questions to me and I will explain them in the weekly webinar.
What is your concept of the course?
is I want to help students to learn 21st-century skills, creativity, and practice innovation sitting at home without compromising the quality of mentorship or guidance.
It also helps the parents to engage their children with productive use of technology and save them from being deviated by the negative effects of using technology.
My aim to transform kids with the question “why don’t you design your own game rather than playing another’s one? It works like a mantra and students get motivated, many of them have stopped playing mobile games and started working on their own.
By the time they start learning new skills to develop games they realize that
- Mathematics is needed to understand coding,
- Science is needed to add a flavor of nature, universe, galaxy, and technology to the game
- Language is needed to communicate and document the game
- And most importantly to develop a good game they need to have a very good idea and the best way to get an idea is to read a lot of books, journals, and blogs.
This is the way I am going to transform the student from the current state to the desired state. After some time they will be mature and enhance their career with the next version of themselves.
For example, if Satish wants to become a doctor, after completing this course in their schooling days, he will not change his aim from becoming a doctor to an engineer. He will be enthused to become a robotic surgeon rather than a general physician.
What expectations do you have of the students, their work, and their participation in the course?
I want my students should;
- Spent 40 minutes daily and follow the instructions regularly.
- Watch the videos attentively.
- Clear the doubt during the question and answer sessions.
- Do not miss any Q&A session, if you miss any session, watch the recordings.
- Complete all the assignments and submit them before time, do not miss any of them.
- Be helpful and cooperative to your peer learners and do not violate the rules of our learning environment either in the live webinar or in the Telegram community.
I will assure you that you will become an expert in your field over time.
What do the students do first?
Interested students will attend the webinar before joining the course and everything will be explained during the webinar. Parents can also attend the webinar and ask questions related to the course, assignments, and evaluation process. Etc,
What do they need to know before they can go on?
As a student, when you enroll in the course, you will be provided with a login ID and Password to access the LMS (Learning Management System).
Once you access the LMS with your login id and password, you will be redirected to the main dashboard.
In the dashboard, you will see the tutorials organized in different modules week-wise.
Every Monday morning, the weekly module will be released in the LMS; your job is to go to the main video lectures first.
In the main video lecture, you will get to know about the learning objectives and learning outcome of the week along with the concept, theory, and practical activity explained in a very easy and comfortable way.
First, you listen to the main video lecture and if required watch this video 2 to 3 times and note down all the important points in a notebook.
If you have any doubt or if you do not understand any particular point discussed in the video then you can share the question to the link that will be provided in the LMS for sending your questions.
Second, you practice drawing the circuit and diagrams shown in the video and write down the code if any code segments are given.
And similarly, if you have any doubt or if you do not understand any particular point discussed in the video then you can share the question to the link that will be provided in the LMS for sending your questions.
Third, you go to the assignment worksheet and try to complete the assignment. And here you also go to the assignment explanation video that will help you understand the assignment.
And similarly, if you have any doubt or if you do not understand any particular point discussed in the video then you can share the question to the link that will be provided in the LMS for sending your questions.
On every Thursday, at 8 PM, I will conduct a live webinar to show how to complete the assignment and also discuss all the questions sent through the link and I will answer one by one (The day and time may change batch to batch).
In this question and answer session, I will make the whole project in front of you to make you more comfortable and you will easily complete your assignment.
If, in case you missed the question-answer session, I will share the recording of the webinar with all the participants. So there is no chance of missing my live session.
Once you finish the assignment, you will submit the assignment in the LMS within the next 15 days.
What theory or fundamental information is necessary for them to learn before applying the knowledge?
Apart from the things mentioned above, there is no requirement of any fundamental concept or knowledge for joining this course.
How will students meet course objectives?
Students will watch the video lesson and go through the required tutorial or practice activity. The tutorials are created in a way that if they watch carefully once or twice and observe the activity they will enjoy the learning.
If in case they do not understand any topic or If they need any support then they can share the issue through the link that will be provided and I will address the issues one by one during the assignment explanation webinar.
What do students need to know or learn?
They just need to follow the sequence of the video tutorial and complete the practice sessions.
How will students be actively involved?
There will be a cashback as a reward for completing each assignment and a Telegram group to support them instantly.
Students will update about their progress in the group and we encourage students to support each other through this channel.
How will students develop insights, understandings, knowledge, and abilities that are essential?
With the main video lesson, there will be certain activities and assignments that need to be submitted by students every week. All the assignments are created in such a way that If a student does not watch the main video lesson carefully, he will feel the necessity of watching the video lesson again while working on the assignment.
Accordingly, they will develop insights, understanding, knowledge, and abilities that are essential.
How will students learn to apply their critical thinking to real-world problem-solving?
In this course, assignments are created to help students apply their creativity and critical thinking to real-world problem-solving.
As the course is all about working with real-life objects like sensors collecting data from the surroundings and students will analyze and manipulate the same for the purpose they are working for.