In an innovative effort to make subjects and curriculum more engaging, the IIT Gandhinagar team has partnered with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) schools to bring STEM learning to life through large-scale exhibits, toys, puzzles, and art.

“It's a navaratri festival going on… & we all friends are staying up till late night. But I was so excited to go to school next morning to work with our school teachers & IIT Gandhinagar team to create the unique exhibit using dice. The weekly Saturday STEM activities are just so much fun.” said Grade 8 student, Amarpura Hindi Shala, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

In a special project at Amarpura Hindi Shala, 20 students, principals, and teachers, along with the IITGN team, created a unique exhibit using 10,000 dice. The exhibit features Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait on one side and Lal Bahadur Shastri’s portrait on the other. The school, established in 1939, is a heritage institution visited by Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. The IITGN team designed this project as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversary on October 2.

As part of the year-long SPARK project between AMC and IIT Gandhinagar, 60,000 middle-school students will receive STEM exposure in a creative and engaging manner.

The initiative includes hands-on workshops in every school, allowing students to explore the curriculum by making exhibits, toys, models, and puzzles. Students and teachers also participate in weekly online sessions focused on experiential pedagogy, developing scientific temper, and assignments or conceptual questions to encourage deeper exploration. Additionally, 200 selected students will receive further mentorship from the IIT Gandhinagar team to promote careers in STEM.

“The creative ideas and activities not only excite students but adults like us equally or maybe more! Most require very basic material, i.e., paper, plastic used bottles, vegetables, newspaper, etc., and hence feasible to let all the students participate at once. There can’t be a better use of Smart TVs most classrooms have for the Saturday online session.” – Mr Rajendra Rathod, Principal, Amarpura Hindi Shala.

“There is a lot of hunger among these children, all we are trying to do is give them engaging and interesting content related to their curriculum which they can start relating with their life.” said Mr Imroz Khan Pathan, STEM Content Researcher at Center for Creative Learning, IIT Gandhinagar. Interestingly, Imroz’s father also worked in AMC schools as a teacher, principal, and resource person before retiring last month (June 2025), with the son now taking his father’s vision to a large scale across all 453 AMC schools.

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