IEEE TryEngineering funded
STEAM for Social Good 2022
In 2022 and 2023, the "STEAM for Social Good" program, a collaboration between IEEE Try Engineering, IEEE Education Society Kerala Section, IEEE SIGHT Kerala Section, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and funded by IEEE Try Engineering, aimed to harness the power of STEAM education for positive societal change. Led by IEEE STEM Ambassador Prof. Gayathri Manikutty, the program empowered middle school children to tackle real-world challenges aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) using technology including robotics, IoT and App Development.
The first edition of the program in 2022 was a 10-day STEAM coding camp and a 2-day Makeathon. The coding camp immersed students in IoT and app development, equipping them with practical skills for innovative problem-solving. A 2 day Makeathon challenged teams to create prototypes addressing specific problem statements based on UN SDGs. Four teams emerged as winners in the Makeathon, each getting awarded Rs. 5,000, igniting their passion for experiential learning.
Some highlights of the 2022 program:
- 43 students (10 girls and 33 boys) in Kochi, Kerala, India participated in the program and made 10 physical prototypes on 4 SDG based design challenges during the Makeathon.
Program highlights
43 students (10 girls and 33 boys) participated in the two-day Makeathon in 10 teams.
10 physical prototypes were made by student teams in the 2 day Makeathon on 4 design challenges. 5 of the physical prototypes were working prototypes
For the 10 day training program on (Internet of Things) IoT and App Development
34 Students from 15 semi-urban and peri-urban schools were trained on IoT and App Development
Students learned about 17 Sustainable Development Goals and mapped the social problems they saw around them to the SDGs
Students increased their understanding of sensors, motors, and embedded hardware
Students increased their appreciation for IoT technology and physical computing to problem-solving
Glimpses of the event
Day 1 Morning Session
The forenoon of the training program started with the children playing a VR game where they interacted with a robot to build a 3 dimensional toy. Then they moved on to learn about sustainability and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The morning session finished with a thrilling and engaging quiz game on UN SDGs.
Day 1 Afternoon Session
Children were introduced to BBC Micro:Bit and Microsoft Makecode. They programmed the Microbit to display their name as a name badge and program it as a dimmerstat. At the end of the day children had fun playing once again with the VR Headset.
Video recording of the Online Sessions
Online Session 1
Connecting Micro:Bit to Thingspeak
Getting started with MIT App Inventor
Online Session 2
Introduction to containers
Connecting to Thingspeak with MIT App Inventor - part 1
Online Session 3
Show and tell