Gyan (Knowledge) Lab
Asia

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A venture to improve human resource value in India by empowering school kids through hands-on exposure, practical constructive learning through our indigenous kinesthetic pedagogy - 'GYAN LAB'

Standings & Awards

4 out of 1313 in Asia
3 out of 779 in Education
2 out of 173 in Scale
4 out of 555 in For-Profit
10 out of 4003 Overall
An effort to primarily create quality Human Beings and secondarily quality Human Resource for India's growth

The K-12 Education Market in India is 20 billion US$ in size. With 1,400,000 schools, India is the 3rd highest producer of graduates after USA & China. However, in the recently conducted PISA+ Test (2009) by OECD, 15 year old Indian students finished 2nd from last from 74 regions across the world. According to the test, the application ability of 8th Graders in India was equivalent to 3rd Graders in Taiwan. Nascomm-Mckinsey Survey states that only 25% technical and 15% humanities graduates in India are employable. Also, Indian students lack empathy, team and soft skills which hamper their chances of a promising work life. The education system in India is dominated by ‘rote learning’. Examination is valued higher than education. In nearly all cases, good students mostly end up as poor human resource primarily due to no emphasis on application based learning. There is a huge gap between the theoretical and practical knowledge a student gains in school. The actual concept building grades (3rd Grade to 8th Grade) are devoid of practical training. So, we created a kinesthetic lab facility called Gyan (knowledge) Lab that encourages and allows school kids (Grades 3 - 9) to learn practical concepts in Science, Social Science, Electronics, Robotics, Mathematics and Pre-vocational Learning (day to day activities and utilities) in a hands-on manner using practical experiments, activities and model-making. Our facility is usually setup within a school free of cost and students attend it at an annual fee. We have championed the Constructivism Pedagogy (a new phenomenon in India) and have aligned our work to the best 5 curriculum standards of the world to give the most comprehensive real-life skills to school students at the most affordable prices. We have setup Gyan Labs at 5 schools already and are expanding to 30 in 2013-14. Gyan Meter, our Learning Measurement Tool, is India’s first unique indigenously built learning measurement tool for school kids. The evaluation is based on 7 different abilities of the brain. Our Gyan Lab manuals for students are completely pictorial (something like IKEA) which gives students the freedom to learn faster and better. We have also been providing full fee waiver to students from economically backward families and are looking to setup our 1st free community lab.

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation? 
We have created a hands-on practical learning curriculum of over 700 hours of activities in the fields of science, math, electronics, robotics and pre-vocational practice (pvp). Our USPs are indigenous Learning Measurement System - Gyan Meter is a diagnosis tool to assess student performance at Gyan Lab using 7 dimensions of intellectual ability and Activity Manuals that are completely pictorial (like IKEA) and grip a child's imagination facilitating better learning and real-life application
2. Who gains the most? 
The primary gainers are school students of grades 3- 9 in India. Education, today, does not enable them to think beyond the realms of ordinary. Their creativity is lost in the grinding of the education structure. We are giving kids a spark to learn through the constructive pedagogy to build knowledge through experience. We are creating a new generation of thinkers and innovators as we encourage creative skills. In the long run, our developing country gains in the form of a strong human resource
3. Who pays? 
Gyan Labs is setup in schools Free of Cost. Students are charged a monthly fee between US$ 0.5 - 1 (low-end) and US$ 1 - 3.5 (high-end) per child based on length and quality of program, which is cost effective and nominal for each type of school in India. All maintenance and components replacement is done free of cost. Student assessment and diagnosis via Gyan Meter is also free of cost. We also provide students with a super accessible Gyan Lab Activity Video Library to enhance their knowledge
4. What is your success? 
We began pilot of Gyan Lab at M.K. School (Pearson Group) in June 2011. From June 2012, we started Gyan Lab in 5 schools working with 700 students and are on course to sign up 30 schools (5000 kids) in 2013. As part of Community Lab, we have started assisting few NGOs with our kits to reach out to poor kids free of cost. Kids, parents, teachers have rated us 9+/10 on Lab Session Quality. Our 5 year target is to reach 150 schools and over 50,000 school students and shape their lives in a +ve way.
5. How will you do it? 
We have proven it on a small scale that students attending Gyan Lab have better learning and think more creatively. Once we get a critical number of kids (10000+) by 2014-15, we would be able to work towards creating the next generation of high thinking individuals and innovators. We are also providing Gyan Lab to poor kids and making them a part of the revolution. We have gained good traction with our program and we dream to convert that to success for kids and help them gain a meaningful life

Badges & Awards

2013 DSIC Project Participant
2012 DEC Project Participant
2nd Place - DEC 2012
2012 DEC 2nd Prize Winner
Finalist - DEC 2012
2012 DEC Finalist
Semifinalist - DEC 2012
2012 DEC Semifinalist
Phase - Scale
Scale Phase Award 2012
Top 40
Top 40 Project 2012
Semifinalist
Semi-finalist Project 2012
Project Participant DSIC 2012
2012 DSIC Project Participant

Mentors

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Rishabh Parakh
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Business Analyst
Dell Global Analytics
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Ajay Hiraskar
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venkatachari NC
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