In this increasingly technology
driven world it is highly imperative that the kids today get an equal and
comfortable opportunity to acquaint themselves to the present day Science scene
and are able to make the best of it. Many scientific innovations, in the form
of engineered systems and soft-applications, are aimed at providing a better
learning experience to the kids. Their use not only promotes a more practical
and sturdy education, but also helps the kids develop a sub-conscious ownership
of technological ideas. These experiences help them overcome their inhibitions
and gain substantial technological exposure so as not to be intimidated by it. Additionally,
it helps to nurture their interest in the field by showing them how interesting,
fun and accomplishing an outlet Science can be.
 |
| Saumya with students |
Our demonstration session on the
Android based Flag Recognition Application for 5th grade students of
Ambedkar Memorial High School was an attempt towards achieving the above said. We
started with the thing that 5th graders love the most i.e. drawing.
They were each given a drawing sheet and a set of pencil colours/crayons/sketch
pens. Next, they were to pick their favourite colour flag and draw it on the
sheet. They excitedly drew around 2 to 3 different flags each and were eager to
pose with their creations. Once the drawings were done, I got out the android
phone with its flag recognition application. We clicked pictures of the flags,
cropped them, gave them to the application and got the recognition results as a
list of top-10 best matched countries. The students would look at the top-10
options and pick out the country that their flag belonged to.
 |
| Students engrossed in drawing the maps |
This exercise not only helped
them learn about the different countries and flags in a fun way, but also gave
them a taste of how a machine can be trained to perform such an activity. The
idea is to tickle these young minds and set them thinking. After all, good
things start when you begin to think!!
Saumya Jetley
No comments:
Post a Comment