School can be boring. Age-old textbooks, outdated concepts, and traditional teaching methods can seem rather dull when everything else in a student’s life is so dynamic, interactive and immersive.
As the world changes into a touchscreen saga, the way education is imparted too, needs reform. While other industries of the world have progressed rapidly, education in many countries and systems in the world, remains more or less unchanged. Despite the exciting changes that surround us, we continue to employ medieval methods, and some school curriculums remain focused on outdated frameworks.
This is changing, slowly and steadily, and veteran educators, ambitious tech entrepreneurs and new-age businesses alike are seeing the need to integrate STEM learning into classrooms around the world.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields now pervade every aspect of our lives, and these often tend to be the most innovative, exciting, and awe-inspiring fields. Moreover, the need for STEM professionals is ever-increasing. So what can we do to inspire the youth and prepare them to embrace these changes?
One key solution is to establish innovation-friendly learning environments for young minds.
Mobile STEM Labs address this need perfectly. These futuristic tools can be used to challenge and inspire students and prepare them to innovate, problem-solve, and thrive in a present and future that is turning more technologically-dependent every day.
Essentially, a Mobile STEM lab is a trolley that can move from classroom to classroom and turn any traditional classroom, or any available school space, really, into a STEM lab.
The lab provides educators with all the tools necessary to deliver dynamic, interactive lessons on any STEM-related subject. These include audio-visual presentation equipment, interactive student assessment tools and hands-on activities involving robotics, electronics, and drones.
Here is how STEM Labs help to turn classrooms into innovation spaces, and therefore students into innovators:
- Mobile STEM Labs cater to students’ natural sense of curiosity and wonder.
The young mind is curious and desires to learn. STEM Labs provide the tools necessary to build on a student’s innate sense of awe, curiosity, and wonder.
In the traditional classroom setting, students absorb their information through textbooks and note-taking – methods that are unlikely to create impactful learning or to grasp practical concepts.
With mobile STEM labs, the classroom transforms from a rigid environment into one that is engaging and interactive. Mobile STEM labs provide educators with the possibility of applying STEM in Immersive Learning platforms, making the whole experience hands-on.
Students can visit points in history using virtual reality and engage with human anatomy using augmented reality. Beyond these audio-visual aids, STEM labs also come equipped with aluminum DIY kits, smart electronic building blocks, and graphical programming software.
Students can learn, build, problem-solve, and innovate in a live learning environment.
- Mobile STEM labs provide an affordable alternative to full-fledged science labs and high-grade equipment, which not every school can afford.
STEM learning is crucial for students from all walks of life. Mobile STEM labs allow us to put STEM learning within the grasp of curious students the world over.
Many low-income schools don’t have a dedicated science classroom or lab. Mobile STEM labs are cheaper to acquire and maintain than full-fledged science labs. They’re affordable, but still thoroughly integrate every aspect of STEM learning – through AR, VR, 3D Printing, Robotics, and so on.
These labs-on-wheels provide the opportunity for students from all backgrounds to learn with high-grade equipment and technology, something that they might not have otherwise been able to access.
Granteq’s STEM solutions are specifically aligned with the evolution of the fourth industrial revolution. We help bridge the gap between industry and academia by enhancing students’ skills for future needs. Most importantly, we save the school the hassle and cost of building a full-fledged STEM lab, providing them with an easy-to-adopt option at a fraction of the price. Download our Mobile STEM lab solutions here.
- Mobile STEM labs encourage live problem-solving and critical thinking and most importantly, drive innovation
One of the most exciting aspects of Mobile STEM labs, for both students and educators, is that they encourage hands-on activities, experiential learning, and project-based learning.
Learning in this way involves problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity, all of which are critical 21st-century skills for survival in the future.
Project-based learning is a dynamic approach to learning that allows students to solve real-world problems and challenges. Because students have the opportunity to explore real-world challenges, they acquire a more sound knowledge of how to approach these challenges.
This prepares them for the industry in a number of ways, bridging the gap between academia and industry, and setting students up for success beyond the classroom.
Over the last decade, STEM is slowly becoming an integral part of school curriculums. With flexible solutions like STEM labs, schools and learning centers now have the opportunity to provide their students with state-of-the-art learning support materials, without incurring the high costs that usually come with integrating STEM into a curriculum.
In the UAE, as schools are growing in size and student bodies grow bigger, it is also worth considering that one or two fixed labs might not be sufficient to meet the STEM learning demands of a full school. In such cases as well, add-on mobile STEM labs could serve as the perfect solution where space or facilities might be a constraint.
The question does not remain as to whether or not schools will adopt STEM labs – the question is how quickly they will and what’s next in the exciting ed-tech world.
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Granteq provides a wide variety of cutting-edge technology and smart solutions for schools and educational institutions. Our team provides complete support to teams and organizations of all sizes and is committed to keeping you one step ahead at all times.
If you have any questions or queries with regards to STEM labs or other digital solutions, write to us at (kannan@granteq.com) and one of our experts will get back to you.