As a child in Roorkee, Nupur Jain was introduced to the wonders of an electron microscope, piezoelectricity and taken on plant visits. “This initial exposure turned me into a science lover and a technology enthusiast,” she says.
After completing her Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee in 2002, she joined the information technology industry, where she was exposed to design thinking.
In 2013, when her child was three, Ms. Jain made a toy for him using rubber bands and paper to show how the human eye works. “He loved playing with it and could explain the concept in his own words to our five-year-old neighbour,” recalls Ms. Jain. Encouraged, she decided to experiment with a few more designs and found that her child was learning concepts much better.
This laid the seed for the Applied Science and Engineering (ASE) Club, which aimed to develop working models that would show application of concepts in a simple manner, encouraging a child to play, experiment, and make the model.
Soon one of her friends, Sonal Jose, a Computer Engineer from Mumbai University, joined her. Ms. Jain invested ₹20 lakh and together, they started doing research to understand concepts known to students only theoretically. They piloted their project at Kangaroo Kids, Powai in October 2013. With a core team of five professionals, they launched the ASE Club in 2015 as an ecosystem for Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) at Oberoi International School and Oberoi Splendor community with 60 students. To develop a more detailed understanding of the design thinking process, Ms. Jain joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan Program in 2017 and subsequently, SPJIMR, to learn management principles.
Grooming innovators
Ashish Jain, a diabetologist who is in charge of innovation efforts, says the ASE Club tries to change the focus from a marks-centric to application-based assessment. “This helps in stimulating the children not only to ask questions but also relate to what they learn.”
The Club grooms students from Junior KG to Class XII to be free thinkers and innovators through classroom sessions and exposure to industry and global trends. In addition, ASE Club Labs can be set up in a school, community or outdoor premises. They are equipped with materials and tools for all age groups. The cost of a lab setup varies from ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh.
The after-school programme and camps are an annual, weekly feature divided into four levels based on the students’ academic requirements. Each level has three to four learning modules. The fees vary from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 40,000. Priyanka Singhal, who is in charge of business development and marketing, says, “Our learning modules try to deal with complex Science and Engineering concepts and break them into fun and simple activities and applications. This helps students understand and remember.”
ASE Club has five teachers who underwent a year-long technical and soft skills training before they taking classes. They now conduct classes in schools and communities in suburbs from Powai to Goregaon and have worked with more than 700 children.
Says Pallavi Sripada, whose sons, Shreyas (10) and Tejas (7), have been taking ASE Club’s Level 3 and Level 2 programmes respectively for more than a year, “As an engineer, I wanted my kids to enjoy and experience what they learnt instead of memorising content. Application and hands-on activities are of utmost importance for children to become Science lovers. My kids now not only make small machines, which they proudly call their ‘inventions’, but are able to solve application-oriented questions with ease.”
Expansion plans
“We want to bring India on the world map for innovations,” says Ms. Jain. In the Global Innovation Index, 2017 which provides detailed metrics about the innovation performance of 127 countries and economies around the world, India was ranked 60. “We have grown from working on individual topics to now interconnecting concepts of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Design and different Engineering disciplines.”
ASE Club has clocked revenues of Rs. 4 lakh in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and Rs. 5 lakh in the current year. They plan to expand their team and outreach and are looking for investors.
Says Ms. Jain, “In this information age where people can read and watch things of interest at a click, they have stopped being active. ASE Club intends to develop creativity, free play and ideation among children, essential for innovation and sustainability of ideas.”
Snapshot:
Applied Science and Engineering Club
Founder: Nupur Jain
Founded: 2015
Funding: Bootstrapped
Web: aseclub.in
