By Nafisa Khatoon
The course will encourage students to create projects using indigenous solutions to solve local challenges
To increase technology integration in schools, the CBSE has introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the school curriculum from classes VI to X. The initiative was launched jointly by NITI Aayod and Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) in October 2022. This was introduced as the pilot project in 59 schools having Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) at their campuses. The schools are now making efforts to include students who are outside the ambit of ATLs.
“CBSE has introduced emerging technologies such as AI, Data Science, AR and VR as skill subjects for classes VI-XII. Presently, more than 10,00,000 students from more than 5,000 schools have enrolled in these subjects. As its integration into academic subjects and teaching pedagogies is in the early stages, CBSE is conducting organizing capacity building programs for the teachers,” says Biswajit Saha, Director (Skill Education), CBSE.
Intel was roped in to offer technical support and create the course activities.
“We want to create a digital-first mindset among both teachers and students so that they can work in the AI-enabled future,” says Shweta Khurana, senior director, Global Government Affairs, Intel.
The curriculum includes creative lesson plans for students to work on projects offering solutions to local problems. “The initial part of the program focused on training the computer teachers on AI and IoT, where we encouraged them to create lesson plans based on the new technologies. Students are encouraged to learn these technologies at ATL to create projects with social impact and build indigenous solutions,” adds Khurana.
The National Education Policy of 2020 (NEP 2020) recognized the immense potential of AI and recommends its integration into the education system. “The larger aim is to align with the NEP 2020 and optimize the current ATLs infrastructure to make Indian schools AI-ready. For example, class IX students will gain knowledge through the newly designed lesson plan that focuses on identifying reasons for back pain and developing an AI-driven solution. They will work in group projects to develop an LED device that glows, whenever an incorrect posture is detected and green light glows when the correct posture is retained,” says Khurana.
The technology has also been introduced in class IX textbooks of Social Science to create interesting lesson plans. “Science students are guided to understand why plants die in winter. Through the lesson plans, they are allowed to use tinkering tools like sensors to record the moisture level of the soil. They are then supported to deploy a supervised AI model to predict the plant’s health by making use of the recorded data. In another scenario, an English teacher built a lesson plan for explaining the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost using the scientific probability method in computer labs,” she adds. So far, more than 20,000 teachers are trained, who are imparting knowledge to 350,000 students through boot camps and mentoring camps.
The course will encourage students to create projects using indigenous solutions to solve local challenges
To increase technology integration in schools, the CBSE has introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the school curriculum from classes VI to X. The initiative was launched jointly by NITI Aayod and Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) in October 2022. This was introduced as the pilot project in 59 schools having Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) at their campuses. The schools are now making efforts to include students who are outside the ambit of ATLs.
“CBSE has introduced emerging technologies such as AI, Data Science, AR and VR as skill subjects for classes VI-XII. Presently, more than 10,00,000 students from more than 5,000 schools have enrolled in these subjects. As its integration into academic subjects and teaching pedagogies is in the early stages, CBSE is conducting organizing capacity building programs for the teachers,” says Biswajit Saha, Director (Skill Education), CBSE.
Intel was roped in to offer technical support and create the course activities.
“We want to create a digital-first mindset among both teachers and students so that they can work in the AI-enabled future,” says Shweta Khurana, senior director, Global Government Affairs, Intel.
The curriculum includes creative lesson plans for students to work on projects offering solutions to local problems. “The initial part of the program focused on training the computer teachers on AI and IoT, where we encouraged them to create lesson plans based on the new technologies. Students are encouraged to learn these technologies at ATL to create projects with social impact and build indigenous solutions,” adds Khurana.
The National Education Policy of 2020 (NEP 2020) recognized the immense potential of AI and recommends its integration into the education system. “The larger aim is to align with the NEP 2020 and optimize the current ATLs infrastructure to make Indian schools AI-ready. For example, class IX students will gain knowledge through the newly designed lesson plan that focuses on identifying reasons for back pain and developing an AI-driven solution. They will work in group projects to develop an LED device that glows, whenever an incorrect posture is detected and green light glows when the correct posture is retained,” says Khurana.
The technology has also been introduced in class IX textbooks of Social Science to create interesting lesson plans. “Science students are guided to understand why plants die in winter. Through the lesson plans, they are allowed to use tinkering tools like sensors to record the moisture level of the soil. They are then supported to deploy a supervised AI model to predict the plant’s health by making use of the recorded data. In another scenario, an English teacher built a lesson plan for explaining the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost using the scientific probability method in computer labs,” she adds. So far, more than 20,000 teachers are trained, who are imparting knowledge to 350,000 students through boot camps and mentoring camps.
