OREANDA-NEWS. Innovation Hub, a new facility, the first-of-its-kind in the western part of India, aimed at supplementing formal school education and seeking new ways to bring innovative science teaching and experiences to students, was inaugurated at the Nehru Science Centre on February 24 by R Gopalakrishnan, member, National Innovation Council and director, Tata Sons. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gopalakrishnan said that his visit to the Innovation Hub and his interaction with the students, who have created various innovative projects and activities, made him relive his childhood days. He added that India is a young nation with brilliant young minds and is well positioned for innovation. He further added that innovations that affect the entire society are the need for our country and that the National Innovation Council has been established expressly with the objective of providing proper ambience in the country to promote grassroot innovations. He emphasised that despite the apparent chaos that India is known for, there are several grassroot innovations which are affecting society and that the innovation hub facilities that will be established all across the country will motivate and excite young minds in innovation. He complimented the Nehru Science Centre for creating this wonderful facility and hoped that school students will make use of this facility for fostering their creative talent. Mr Gopalakrishnan, announced that the National Innovation Council (NInC) and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) will be establishing 100 such innovation hubs all across the country in the next five years.

This new facility, the fifth in the chain of innovation hubs that are developed by the NCSM and NInC, is aimed at fostering the creative faculty among students by emphasising on inquiry-based learning and promoting a craving for lifelong learning. The inevitability of lifelong learning in knowledge-oriented societies implies that school systems should have different objectives and characteristics than if education were considered to have been completed, when a student leaves initial education. Yet in practice, there remains a tendency for school education to be assessed in terms of the achievements and targets that systems have set themselves, rather than their broader success in laying the foundation for lifelong learning.

Chief guest R Gopalakrishanan, director, Tata Sons, and member of NInC, Government of India, visiting the Tod Fod Jod section of Innovation Hub

The Innovation Hub at the Nehru Science Centre includes: a hall of fame; inventions and inventors, in which several multimedia kiosks bring the stories of major inventors and their inventions in various fields to life; the Innovation Resource Centre, with a broadband Internet connection that provides online access to innovation-centric resources, e-journals, books and grassroot innovation portals; an innovative laboratory with facilities for carrying out innovative activities, experiments and projects in a multi-disciplinary set-up; a tech lab for robotics and microprocessor programming, electronics with a facility for creative and innovative projects in robotics, electronics and microprocessor programming, apps development for mobiles, etc, for practical applications. The other facilities include a section on tod fod jod in which students can creatively engage in learning to open gadgets and reassemble them on their own, kabad se jugad (build from scraps), where students can use low-cost materials to develop interesting models or science toys and perform investigative experiments, and an idea box, in which students are encouraged to write down innovative ideas and submit them to the idea bank. The best ideas are chosen for further development as project work. The lab with facility for experimentation in physics, chemistry, electronics, biology, robotics, etc also provides opportunities for students to work on innovative ideas and make a working model or kit on it and perform several investigative experiments.

The Innovation Hub offers children an inquiry-based, science learning approach that is student-constructed as opposed to teacher-transmitted, hands-on as opposed to lecture-based. It also provides an opportunity for real-life problem identification and solution finding, and carrying out investigative types of projects under the guidance of experts and mentors for submission of their dissertation reports. The Nehru Science Centre has already initiated talks with leading scientific institutions in Mumbai and with the Industrial Design Centre of IIT Bombay for their collaboration and for mentoring of students at the Innovation Hub. The centre hopes that this collaboration will help in encouraging students to perform research-based, innovative practices in schools to improve student learning. This initiative emphasises a personalised learning experience for students.