19-07-23 Daily-Tamilnadu-TNPSC Current Affairs

Earlier this year, 25 kids from Chennai schools made it to the prestigious Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Satellite Launch Vehicle Mission 2023. This project brought together 5,000 schoolchildren from Classes VI to XII from all over India to learn about designing and developing 150 PICO satellites, which were launched by the sounding rocket on February 19, 2023, from a coastal hamlet near Chennai.

Cracking a major national programme like this one was a breakthrough for the 25 Chennai schoolchildren who were part of engineering major Larsen & Toubros engineering futures (EF)programme. For the company, it was validation that its back-to-school projects are in a class of their own.

The EF programme (launched in 2019) is one of two major CSR projects L&T has inTamil Nadu the other being Every Child A Scientist or ECAS (since 2020). The aim: To kindle scientific temper and critical thinking among students of government schools. Both programmes aim to bridge educational gaps by helping students use technology and work with cutting-edge TEACHING and Learning Resources. The EFprogramme integrates the four disciplines of STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) into a learning paradigm based on real-world applications. The ECAS program me helps children improve their academic scores and provides them opportunities to learn about the earth and atmospheric sciences, biology, <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, Health and Nutrition, physics, chemistry.
So far, nearly 16,000 students from 50 schools in Nadu have been covered in the last threeand-a-half years. L&T officials say the aim is to ensure students do not get spooked by science and maths. The EF programme strives to ignite childrens innate creativity and curiosity. By offering experiential learning, complex concepts become more accessible and maths and science become less daunting, says Mabel Abraham, head-CSR, L&T. For the EF project, L&T has partnered with the NGO American India Foundation to cover Classes VI to VIII in government schools in Chennai, Kanchipuram, Chengalpet, and Tiruvallur districts.