Choice School has been consistently ranked as one of the best schools in Kerala. The school is very famous for its sports and cultural achievements at the National level. The Atal Tinkering Lab has helped us to be the best in science and technology as well!

Interested students from not only class 6th to 12th but also from classes 3rd to 5th have one period for ATL activity every week. Those who want to spend extra time at the labs are always welcome. Students participating in competitions usually stay back after school time.

We started participating in competitions organised by the colleges in our city and slowly moved to national and international competitions. As we progressed our journey in the ATL, the students became more aware and curious about technology and innovation, and the teachers felt more confident and responsible. ATL activities really improve the way students approach a problem, making a solution after many iterations and developing a working prototype to meet the expectation. Participating in events really help the children improve their technical skills. We would like to use this opportunity to thank the Atal Innovation Mission for providing us all the required infrastructure to reach and win in competitions at the international level.

Right now, every participant of the RoboRAVE International team is creating new teams by adding more students and preparing for the next event, thus spreading the word around ATL to many more students who have been curious and excited to explore things themselves. ATL activities have helped these students to improve their leadership skills, attitude and soft skills.

14 students participated from The Choice School and won third prize in the Entrepreneurial challenge at RoboRAVE India, 2017. One of our team got sponsorship from Sony Global Education to participate in RoboRAVE Asia at Beijing.

Jordan Joby Eralil and Basil Alias of class 6 represented India in the Sony “KOOV Robot” challenge in RoboRAVE Asia, held at Beijing. We won bronze medal in both Individual and group robot building competition. 1500 students from China, India, US, Philippines and Japan participated in various competitions. RoboRAVE India and RoboRAVE Asia competitions really inspired the students to participate in the RoboRAVE International at Albuquerque, USA. Three teams participated in the Entrepreneurial challenge and one in the Line Follower Challenge. We were the only school from India in this competition and all the students felt really proud and happy and nervous at the same time. In Entrepreneurial challenge, one of our team won the second prize for automated portable water rain purification & storage project and another team won the third prize for ‘solar powered sewage cleaner’. We are excited as we have filed patent applications and if granted this will be a great achievement for the students, school and for the Atal Tinkering Lab initiative.

 

“When we were invited to compete in RoboRAVE International 2018 in Albuquerque, New Mexico we were thrilled. Going to an international robotics competition was a prized rare opportunity and we had hoped that even if we did not win, we would experience the right kind of exposure to motivate us to try again. We spent our entire vacation in the school ATL to design and build the project. I am very happy that I got the opportunity to represent India, with our national flag during the inauguration ceremony of RoboRAVE International” said Naina, the only one girl among the nine members team.

 

“I was part of the first RoboRAVE India competition conducted in our school when I was in fifth and my team won the first prize in firefighting competition. From then onwards I developed a liking towards it and our ATL teachers encouraged me to no end. I was lucky to be selected for the RoboRAVE International competition which was held at New Mexico. It was a great experience, exposure, and fun which only very few could dream off. I got this opportunity only because of the ATL of my school and I spend most of my break time in the lab for tinkering.” said Saif, a grade seven student, who did the programming part of Solar Powered Sewage Cleaner.
Additionally, 22 students from our school also participated in Shaastra 2018, annual technical festival of IIT, Madras. We won first and second prize in Robo-oceana (one of the flagship robotics competition at the event).

 

The ATL at our school has been the most revolutionary idea implemented in a long time that has generated cartons full of ideas and cupboards full of projects from the students. The principal, teachers and students all have been very enthusiastic in breaking the chains of adopting a fixed approach to solve a problem. The students have developed a go-getter attitude and they just want to discuss the problems around them and find a solution in the magical ATL. As we ride further in our ATL journey, we aspire to transform the students into thinkers and makers and wish to see them serve the country and people with their innovative and amazing ideas.

 

Sunil Paul
ATL In-charge
Choice School, Kochi, Kerala

Names of students: Jacob T John, Ein George Thomas, Maneesh Janardhanan, Shreyas Sunil, Naina Marie Vinu, Vinayak Santhosh, Saif Zulfikar

Mentors: Sunitha Satheesh and Sunil Paul