To build a successful company, one needs to get funding from venture capitalists or angel investors, is what most Entrepreneurs believe. However, in reality we see some of the best start-ups in business were self-financed by its founders when they began and eventually VCs started investing into them when these start-ups attained greater success.
Here is an insight into one such self-funded extraordinary and compelling start-up ‘International S.T.E.A.M Research’ (ISR), which has achieved great success so far in India. Not only is ISR the best service provider in S.T.E.A.M Experiential Learning empowering schools pan India but it is the only S.T.E.A.M Research Company in India that offers their services at the most affordable cost in the world.
Riding on the constantly evolving dynamics of changing times, the world has come full circle. It began with the ancient wisdom of the oldest civilizations suggesting that ‘To learn is to live, and to live, we must educate ourselves with a holistic worldview.’
Then somewhere in the sands of time, the timeless wisdom got buried. We kept differentiating the holistic worldview into tedious, monotonous, and un-evolving subjects and isolating education in individual mind boxes. We adopted a static formal educational system to produce an industrial labour force. We kept resisting the much-needed change far too long.
‘International S.T.E.A.M Research’s Founders Dr. George Panicker and Capt. Shaji Sebastian, believe that since the dawn of the industrial revolution, formal education has remained mostly static. In lecture halls around the globe, students still sit in rows of desks gazing at their teachers lecturing in front of the classroom delivering content that they’re expected to memorise, be tested, and be rewarded.
In order to bring in a paradigm shift from traditional education philosophy based on standardised test scores, to a modern ideal which focuses on valuing the learning process as much as the results, both George & Shaji have designed the ISR teaching and learning ecosystem model to promote invention literacy through innovative collaboration and cooperation between various institutions, organizations, communities, networks and thought leaders which is key to develop mindful life-long learners and problem-solvers for a sustainable world.
ISR STEAM Experiential Learning & NEP-2020
Dr Panicker, being a highly committed and passionate educationist and a fervent proponent of Heutagogy says, “We are living in a world where content is copiously ubiquitous and easily accessible making memorizing obsolete; hence the ISR STEAM Experiential Learning is context-based and not just content-based.”
According to Dr Panicker, it is high time to pull out our educational system trapped in a bygone era and revitalize it to match the needs of modern times. Traditional aspects of education, like reading, memorizing, writing, and doing arithmetic, are insufficient to meet future demands. He adds that it is our responsibility to make our students proficient in the 4 C’s of education of the 21st century, Critical thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration.
Today, instead of college degrees, employers ask for qualities like creativity, ingenuity, innovation, agility and adaptability, critical thinking, complex problem-solving ability, people management skills, emotional intelligence, and cognitive flexibility.
Fast-advancing digitalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are transforming our reality with exponential technological advancements. Disruption of old trends–be it how we learn, perform our jobs and even the skills required to succeed in our personal and professional life–is the present inevitable truth. Several studies, surveys, and research conducted globally predict that in the imminent future, automation will replace almost half of the human function performed today.
A holistic approach to developing teachers’ and learners’ capabilities, with learning as an active and proactive process, Heutagogy, is an extraordinary form of self-determined learning with practices and principles rooted in pedagogy and andragogy.
ISR partners with schools/institutions to empower their students with integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Experiential Learning Labs equipped with futuristic technologies like Robotics, Drones, AI, AR, VR, IoT, Applied Coding etc aligned to the various stages as per NEP-2020 guidelines.
World education in general, and Indian education in particular, are already in the revamp mode. In the Indian case, a revamp has already begun with the implementation of National Education Policy – 2020.
A Futuristic Ecosystem of Learning
In fact, according to Dr Panicker, the NEP2020 is a revolutionary document and it shows the way India can be Education 4.0 ready and encompasses all stakeholders of the educational ecosystem. It encourages teachers to go beyond the traditional selective and limited curriculum-based teaching by enabling them to leverage futuristic assistive technologies. This way, they can improve student engagement by fostering personalized learning. Out-of-the-box thinking is a crucial aspect of Education 4.0.
“The future of education lies in integrating Experiential learning with practical, research-based activities into the schools’ core pedagogy so that students can develop their Metacognitive Skills,” says Dr Panicker.
He adds, to develop a scientific mentality in students, S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Experiential learning hands-on activities is proving to be the perfect methodology where students learn having fun without the fear of failure.
The significance and the relevance of the textbooks or content can never be overruled. However, there is always a need for innovation and re-invention with the context and the challenges that we face due to rapid changes in and around us. To bridge this gap, experiential learning comes handy as it connects content to the leaner’s real-world making it more relevant, applicable and easier to imbibe.
Affordable, Reliable & Sustainable
Since ISR STEAM Experiential Learning is not a fixed curriculum-based subject but continuously evolving, dynamic and organic. Integrating it into daily students’ routines is quite challenging. It demands teachers to be on their toes all the time and constantly upskill
themselves with new standards and novel technologies. That is why it is imperative for educational institutes to collaborate with experts who can guide them in seamlessly integrating STEAM Experiential Learning activities within their existing infrastructure without having to make large scale financial investments. “We partner with schools to provide their students, Experiential Learning through hands-on STEAM activities with the use of futuristic technologies maintaining the highest ethical standards at the most affordable cost.” says Dr Panicker.
Designed on the ISR 7E methodology and CRM XP 360 frameworks, ISR activities in a STEAM Lab, which is commonly known as ‘Happy Zone,’ encourages students to collaborate by forming small groups and finding solutions to real-world problems through critical thinking, research-based inquiry, and open-ended exploration, incorporating multiple subjects through a holistic design-thinking process.
While learning by themselves in collaboration and having fun, students arrive at the result by failing multiple times. “This process allows them to develop and hone their Heutagogical skills,” assures Dr Panicker.
He furthers that “Our intention is not to make anyone an expert in all of what is mentioned, but to harness the essential transferable skills behind them, which are vital for a thriving economy and a safe, sustainable society,”
To facilitate students to do so within the schools, the management of the schools must make sure such initiatives are affordable, scalable, inclusive, and sustainable in the long term. All schools that have partnered with ISR in India extremely appreciative of the high-quality international standard service ISR has been providing them.
STEAM Experiential Learning is not about just Robotics or Coding
Schools in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Meghalaya, and West Bengal are leveraging ISR’s STEAM Experiential Learning services.
Dr Panicker says that there is a misconception that isolated studying of subjects or coding, AI, robotics, app creation, etc., or developing individual skills among students would be enough to prepare students as future-ready global citizens. Often the terms such as ‘S.T.E.M’, ‘S.T.E.A.M’ are thrown around like a catchphrase or buzzword when one refers to Robotics, Coding, A.I etc. These terms might be interrelated, but it doesn’t mean they’re the same. Instead, they are different subjects with some interlinked concepts. Dr Panicker requests, “For the sake of our students and quality education, it is high time these misconceptions are eliminated sooner than later.” ISR STEAM Experiential Learning is holistic and is rooted in David Kolb’s theory of experiential learning cycle.
Understanding ISR Happy Zone
The learning environment in a HAPPY ZONE / STEAM Lab is student-centric that lets students control their own learning and enables them to think critically, evaluate, make decisions and construct knowledge, make learning experience cooperative, collaborative and independent resulting in bridging the gap between theory and practice. It is not simply doing too many activities in a class, taking students out visiting places without any specific learning aim, utilizing expensive resources for learning or watching videos in a smart class.
It is also very important to note that any and every hands-on activity cannot be considered as experiential learning. Just because the activities may be hands-on, it does not mean it is mind-on. Many projects, field trips, situation do not yield lasting outcomes because too little or negligible time is given to assimilate and conceptualize the experience in the true STEAM Experiential learning framework.
ISR STEAM Experiential learning is designed for school education in line with the curricular and pedagogical structure of the National Education Policy consisting of 4 stages: Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary Stage.
Experiential Learning enables and empowers learners to connect learning on the basis of their prior knowledge, reflect on it, and then conceptualize it before applying to new situations, makes learning meaningful. Also, learning is meaningful and authentic when learners engage in real-world experiences through multisensory approaches rather than passively absorbing text from text- books.
Teachers in a school can plan learning experiences by creatively engaging students with resources that are available locally. However, in order to realistically plan and execute the STEAM activities in a sustainable and inclusive manner within the classroom within a specific time and space, the ISR XP Kit is provided to the learners by the ISR-trained facilitators. This makes the life of teachers in the school easier.
As experiential learning encourages independent reflection and observation, it allows the classroom to cater to diversified learning styles of learners. In case of classrooms with learners from different background and cultural contexts, the ISR facilitators are trained to customize the learning experiences to address the diversity effectively. Through ISR STEAM experiential learning, the learner absorbs, applies and then reflects upon the knowledge, gained through his/her experience.
Experiential learning gives an opportunity to the learners to take ownership and pride in the concrete result after their hands-on activities. As a result, the learning process accelerates, and the acquisition of knowledge becomes interesting and enjoyable, thereby, comprehending and retaining the knowledge lifelong.
ISR STEAM Experiential Education is education board and curriculum agnostic. Hence any school following any education board can provide the ISR STEAM Experiential learning to its learners and add value to its existing curriculum.
The fine line between Experience and Experiential must be kept in mind by educators at all time. Experience or Experiencing, refers to learning by doing which may or may not involve reflection. ISR STEAM Experiential learning 7E methodology however is more specific, planned and involves learning by self-reflection. Hence it makes the learner responsible for his/her own learning.
ISR STEAM Experiential learning requires lot of planning on the part of the facilitator. She/he has to check how to make the learning engagements connect to real-life situations and are meaningful to the learner. For this the facilitator must have a fair amount of background information as well. What works for one school/classroom setting may or may not work in another. So, local context and resources have to be connected to the lesson plans so that the experience can be imbibed and the learner is not disengaged. If not, any activity may turn out to be simply a teacher-led classroom activity. A dedicated and highly skilled Research & Development team of STEAM Experts at the ISR R&D centre facilitates the planning of dynamic and customized lesson plans for the ISR facilitators of individual ISR partner schools.
It would be rather difficult for a non ISR STEAM skilled teacher/facilitator to develop lesson plans for a classroom following the ISR 7E cycle. Hence, it is of utmost importance that a teacher/facilitator is STEAM Skilled through regular ISR capacity building trainings and is in sync with the ISR R&D team.
Developing Lifelong Learners and Problem Solvers
There is a growing demand for STEAM-skilled personnel across the globe. STEAM Jobs are growing three times faster in the US compared to Non-STEAM jobs.
STEAM jobs are often in the most innovative fields and progressive companies, leading to exciting and challenging work. Globally, 75% of the fastest-growing occupations require STEAM skills.
ISR STEAM Experiential Learning service, aligned to the NEP-2020 provided to schools by ISR, is outcome-based and imparted to students using futuristic technologies. Students becoming future-proof and versatile is of paramount importance. However, it goes far beyond; by helping students to become lifelong learners and problem solvers through a combination of skills without ignoring to be good human beings and constructive law-abiding citizens of the world.
“Exponential technological development is inevitable, and a drastic change in how we work and the type of jobs we do in the near future is what awaits us. None of us can do this singularly. So it is of paramount importance that all stakeholders work together and help one and all be future-ready,” says Dr Panicker, who has been a part of numerous major educational projects in various countries. With his rich experience of over 20 years, having worked and interacted with various thought leaders and educationists from across the globe, Dr Panicker concludes that the only way to be prepared for the future of work is to embrace the idea of helping all learners to be future-ready mindful problem-solvers.
Global Recognition for ISR and its Founders
ISR is awarded
● ‘The Best Company to Work For 2022,’ by Prime Insights Magazine
● ‘Brand of The Year 2022,’ by Business Outreach Magazine
● ‘Most Innovative Business 2022’ MSME Indian Business Award
● ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Award 2022’
● ‘Best S.T.E.A.M Education Company 2022’
Dr George Panicker & Capt. Shaji Sebastian are featured as
● ‘Most Dynamic Personalities 2022,’ in Fortune India Magazine
Dr George Panicker is featured as
● ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 2022,’ in Business Outreach Magazine