change making club

Summary:  Start a Change Making Club for ATL students to spread a culture of tinkering, innovation & entrepreneurship among the larger student community through various student-led initiatives within their school and across schools.

Most ATL students have to struggle through the tinkering journey, learn things the hard way, and depend on Mentors or experts to assist them in completing their tinkering or innovation projects.  At the same time, much of the knowledge and expertise gained by student tinkerers and innovators at the ATL remains in small pockets, and is not widely disseminated among the larger student community within or outside the ATL.  The need is to develop an in-house system for sharing knowledge & expertise gained by experienced tinkerers & innovators to the larger student community within or outside the ATL.

This way, the knowledge, skills and expertise of the Change Making Club members can be spread among the larger student community within an outside the ATL.  The Club members will serve as brand ambassadors of their ATLs, while budding tinkerers and innovators will look up to them as role models to emulate.  Over time, the club can develop new skills & competence, undertake new initiatives and expand its scope of activities by inducting many more students.  In the long run, the club can groom many more Change Makers among students to spread a culture of tinkering, innovation, & entrepreneurship among the larger student community.

Setting up and driving Change Making Club activities in an ATL can offer the following benefits:

• Students develop core capabilities & competencies through student-led initiatives, peer-learning, shared learning, self-learning, and collaboration

• Schools find improved participation of students in ATL activities

• ATL develops becomes self-sustainable through development of in-house capabilities and competencies

• Reduces burden on teachers and lower dependence on experts, mentors and vendors

• Improves the quality of learning and innovations coming out of ATLs through peer-learning

The following tools can be used for launching a Change Making Club in the ATL:

• Google Sites or Wix for building the Club website.

• Google Forms for registering students to the Club.

• Zoom or Google Meet for conducting online sessions.

• YouTube Live or Facebook Live can be used for live-streaming online sessions to a larger audience.

• Canva for creating posters to promote the Club activities.

A Tinker Champ Club was a change-making club launched in an ATL to drive improved participation by students in ATL activities, and encourage greater student-led initiatives.   As part of the Club activities, the club members have undertaken several initiatives over the last several months.  Thousands of students and teachers within and outside the ATL have benefited from their initiatives:

Role of School Management:  Launch Change Making Club in your ATL and induct talented, experienced tinkerers with self-drive, positive attitude, can-do spirit, leadership potential, energy & motivation into the club and provide them the freedom and opportunity to drive a variety of student-led initiatives, activities, events and programmes.

Role of Students: Become members of the Change Making Club in your ATL.  Assume leadership role and drive a variety of student-led initiatives, programmes and events to spread a culture of tinkering, innovation and entrepreneurship among the larger student population.  Strive to become a Change Maker through your initiatives and actions.

Role of Mentor(s): Provide guidance and support to Club members in planning, organizing and conducting various student-led initiatives.

Role of ATL In-charge:  Provide logistical and other support from the school for the club members to plan, organize and drive student-led initiatives.

Start a Change Making Club in your ATL.  Submit the link / screenshot(s) / video-recording demonstrating activities undertaken by students as part of the club activities.