Minister Priyank Kharge interacting with students as they demonstrate their projects at a programme in Kalaburagi city on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI
As many as 700 Papertronics kits will be distributed to 70 schools in Kalaburagi district to foster scientific curiosity, practical learning and basic electronics skills among schoolchildren, Home, IT-BT and e-Governance Minister and Kalaburagi district in-charge Minister Priyank Kharge said in Kalaburagi city on Saturday.He was speaking after distributing the kits to students at a programme jointly organised by the district administration, zilla panchayat, the School Education Department, the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports, and the Agastya International Foundation.The initiative, taken up in association with the Agastya International Foundation, seeks to encourage scientific temper and creativity among students through hands-on learning. In the first phase, 700 kits would be supplied to 70 schools, Mr. Kharge said.The kits would help students understand basic electronics through experimentation and develop their problem-solving skills. Scientific thinking, he said, was essential for students to meet the demands of the present day, alongside an understanding of culture and heritage.Agastya International Foundation representative Geeta Patil said the organisation, which works across 23 States including Karnataka, was running programmes through 21 science centres in the Kalyana Karnataka region to encourage curiosity and creativity among children.The activities are designed to promote questioning and learning through experimentation under the foundation’s ‘Aha, Aha, Haha’ approach, she said. The Papertronics kits simplify concepts such as electricity and parallel circuits through practical activities.Agastya Foundation CEO Sai Chandrasekhar, who addressed the gathering through videoconference, said the kits contained 20 self-learning activities aimed at introducing children to electronics at an early age. Learning through experimentation would help students retain scientific concepts better, he said.Learning electronics through paperPapertronics is a hands-on electronics learning kit and workbook that uses paper-based circuits, conductive tape, LEDs, switches, batteries and other basic components. Students assemble and test circuits themselves, enabling them to understand concepts such as electric current, series and parallel connections through a “learning by doing” approach.The kit also includes activities involving traffic lights, two-way switches, water switches, electromagnetic systems, motion-activated LEDs, solar circuits, temperature sensing, security alarms and RGB lighting. These exercises are intended to strengthen students’ conceptual understanding, creativity, logical thinking, problem-solving abilities and STEM skills, Mr. Chandrashekar explained. Published - August 15, 2026 08:15 pm IST
