Project L.I.F.E.

Project L.I.F.E.

Project L.I.F.E.

Learning Is For Everyone is a hands-on STEM initiative designed to supplement traditional classroom education in rural India.

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

India

Not registered as any organization

Before starting Project L.I.F.E., we came across a shocking statistic in a newspaper cutout: 98% of children are independent thinkers before starting school, but only 2% retain this by age 25. We believe that behind this statistic lies a two-pronged problem. First, in India, where millions of young learners rely on government schools, the system rewards rote learning over curiosity. As we tried to come up with a solution for this first issue, we visited students and educators in the field. It was there that we identified a second issue: a lack of belief that a career in STEM is a an attainable pathway, where young learners are forced to move into careers that are not conducive to inquiry and change. Suhani, a 12-year-old from a government school in Agra, built a lung model using a bicycle pump. A week later, she asked for more biology books. But when we asked if she saw herself in a career in science, she paused, then said: “Someone like me can never do it.” This lack of interest in STEM is detrimental to society in a way that can be easily seen: a lack of innovation lowers quality of life.

Project L.I.F.E. helps students move away from shortcuts in textbooks, toward lessons that reason through understanding. We want them to connect what they learn in the classroom with what they see in the real world, so they can solve problems in their communities with science. We use tricks they already know, like building paper harmonicas to teach sound waves. Or we look at the matkas (water jugs) in their homes, layered with granite and sand, and turn them into filtration experiments. We bring relatable, hands-on STEM learning to under-resourced schools. As such, we have designed a proprietary curriculum consisting of experiments that supplement local science curricula. To scale this to an increasingly online India, where we can reach virtually any student, we are also creating an app, "Jugaadu", where students can use their phone's camera to view scientific concepts by building generated models with scrap materials. To help address the second part of the problem, we are in the process of publishing and distributing a book called "No One Said I Can", compiling 11 stories of students from underprivileged backgrounds who went on to become accomplished scientists, to erase the notion that "science isn't for me".

The youth in rural India are starved of opportunities, and their potential is stifled. Our solution serves students like Suhani, who can build a lung model from a bicycle pump, devour every science book we send, but still whisper, “Someone like me can never do it.” We work with students in government and low-income schools across India, many of them first-generation learners. They are bright, curious, and full of potential, but are constantly told that science is not “for them.” They memorize textbooks but are never invited to question. They’ve never met a scientist who looks or sounds like them. Project L.I.F.E. brings science into their world. Along with our established initiatives, we feel the need to go the extra mile with certain communities of students. We host stargazing nights in village fields, engineering challenges with straws and tape, and arrange for meets with scientists, so that our impact is truly and meaningfully felt. The hope is that if we can encourage even one student of the thousands we have impacted, to go on to create something which will better the lives of those around them, we will have been successful.