thane innovation and creativity seem to have become the latest driving force for young thaneites who have been showing a sudden inclination towards these topics this newfound passion towards the world of technology science and robotics is bringing young children to tech centers where they try their hand at everything from building robots to conceptualizing zero waste machines and battery chargers that use kinetic energy however despite the rising demand for practical learning of scientific concepts and easily available raw material required for the same schools here have failed to embrace this concept in an interview with toi city based techentrepreneur and founder of childrens tech center purushottam pachpande 30 who has mentored over 2500 children over the years speaks about the need of including practical science with robotics in school curriculum q over the past four years your center has seen close to 3000 students coming to learn robotics innovative gadgets and basic science concepts what is the reason behind this sudden passion a the gen x is very focused on technology nowadays they have easy access to solar cells batteries circuits and other basic material required for science earlier science experiments simply meant watching what the teacher did the fact that they can try it on their own now has hiked their interest levels q what exactly do you teach in your class a my class starts with basics such as electric current how it passes through a circuit how to make a circuit and so on if a student wants to make a robot or 3d image we explore ways to do that if they want to build a zero waste machine or safety alarm for their door we brainstorm and create that q a lot of these theories are taught in school science textbooks how does your teaching method stand out a the problem with the teaching methods of many schools is that they still practice the traditional way where the student has to study theory and write it out during the exam some even have science projects but the matter is lifted off the net i start my class by giving the child a smoldering machine q before starting your center you approached a number of schools to teach students there but in vain why do you think schools are still hesitant to embrace this methodology in their curriculum a i dont charge the students other than the basic material cost and let them take their gadget home this model doesnt fit well with schools as they will have to incur a lot of cost every project requires batteries cells circuits etc additionally they have new students every year however things are changing slowly some have tech and robotics hobby classes and workshops now q the tmc has planned to introduce elearning virtual classrooms and activitybased learning in its schools is this is a step in the right direction a definitely the education system needs to grow and develop with the changing society and its