As an all-terrain robot swiftly makes its way under the benches and tables of a classroom, an excited group of children stare in fascination even while making sure their feet are not in its way. The enthralled children were at a workshop held as part of The Hindu Young World Summer Smart Camp that was held at various centres across the city.
Vishal Desh, a 13-year-old student of Kidobotikz, a robotics training centre, deftly handles the robot and gives a concise description of its functions.
“It is actually interesting to give these children a glimpse into robotics and kindle their interest. That is how I started two years ago,” said Vishal who has won a robotics challenge against college students at National Institute of Technology, Calicut.
Sneha Priya, director of the institute, said they are teaching children to create small circuits.
“This exposure will give them an insight into fields like electronics and programming,” she says.
New techniques
In another venue, children were learning new techniques to remember spellings and idioms.
Srividya Rajesh, an instructor with Scolympics that trains children in vocabulary building and story writing said: “We want to give children a new perspective to learn English — the puzzles and games we have designed will hone their creativity.”
Aniketh, a class IX student, said this workshop taught him words to remember homework.
“There is actually a technique to develop a story or a phrase with just a word. It is a lot more useful and entertaining than the conventional method of learning English at school,” he added, quite excitedly.
