I am a Senior STEM Educator and have been working in the STEM field since 2016. I have experience in Lego Robotics, 3D printing, Laser cutting, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Electronics Automation, MAKEX robotics, Game development, and an Arduino platform. I love to work with kids and love to teach various technologies which will help them to build their skill set.

This story is based on the success of the FLL 2019 season - INTO ORBIT, my team THE RENAISSANCE, a team of five girls and four boys. All kids were in the range of Grade 7 and Grade 8. At the beginning of the journey, the team was lagging in teamwork, respect for each other, responsibilities, time management, and in many more ways. But as time passed, the team understood various challenges to learn new robotic platforms, individual skills, and the power of TEAMWORK. So in the end, the team understood the value of each other and they boosted their performance and achieved 3rd rank in the FLL North India Championship-Delhi and secured Fifth position in the FLL North American Championship at California, USA in MAY 2019 and made INDIA proud in front of the 68 teams worldwide.

As we all know kids are very hyper in nature and it is very difficult to teach them life skills. So, at the beginning of FLL journey, almost everyone had their own problems, no one was ready to work in a team and no one ready to take responsibilities of work. So, I designed one strategy to build their teamwork. On a daily basis, I assigned a task to everyone with the condition that the task had to be finished within a timeline. If the task was not completed, all the members of the team would get work again, and if all completed the task, then the team would get extra time to learn new programming skills and robot development. This technique worked for me because in the team everyone was passionate about LEGO robotics, and day-by-day they learned the importance of teamwork and helped each other to complete the task. They also developed respect for each other and understood the value of each member. Finally, the got a fruitful output achieved at the International level.

The most important lesson is teamwork which is the key to success for any kind of skill development. Together you can learn new skills and knowledge easily. While working in a team you will have lots of fun and friendship bonds. Your success will boost your knowledge and team power.

Hardik Mavdiya
Mentor of Change
Manav Rachna International School, Sector 46, Gurugram, Haryana