{"id":45608,"date":"2023-10-20T15:45:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/adelaide-startup-phonelabs-wants-to-convert-students-phones-into-mini-science-labs-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:45:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:45:04","slug":"adelaide-startup-phonelabs-wants-to-convert-students-phones-into-mini-science-labs-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/adelaide-startup-phonelabs-wants-to-convert-students-phones-into-mini-science-labs-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide startup PhoneLabs wants to convert students’ phones into mini science labs – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Adelaide-based entrepreneur is working to inspire more young people to pursue futures in science, technology, engineering and maths through the development of \u201cphones-on\u201d learning.<\/p>\n

PhoneLabs founder Sivam Krish has been researching better ways for students to engage with STEM subjects through a government-funded program and says there is a massive gap between classroom learning and real-world application.<\/p>\n

In this research, Krish has found that students grasp dry concepts, formulas and laws when they are given the chance to apply these in a way that\u2019s relevant to them.<\/p>\n

But most classrooms today simply dictate these concepts to students, which Krish says isn\u2019t very exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really very boring because it\u2019s highly routinised and we don\u2019t take into consideration the learning capacity of kids,\u201d he tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe lab experiments that we do, they\u2019re over 100 years old. These were structured in a time when people had to be convinced that science was true.”<\/p>\n

Krish has developed PhoneLabs, an app that allows students to convert their phones into mini-labs, which can be used to complement or create brand new experiments.<\/p>\n

PhoneLabs takes equations and concepts out of textbooks and gives students a chance to apply these in their own lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can put the phone on your bike to see how acceleration and vibrations happens,\u201d Krish says.<\/p>\n

In one class, he watched students create a whistling experiment and they used PhoneLabs’ sound app to see who could create the highest audio frequency.<\/p>\n

Another group created a \u201cJack and Jill\u201d experiment, applying the laws of physics to build a trolley system to move a pail of water, using PhoneLabs to figure out a way to make it work without the water splashing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best way to connect kids,\u201d Krish says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt opens up student-led experiments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krish is now raising $3000 to develop a 3D-printing feature to add to PhoneLabs to help with these sorts of experiments.<\/p>\n

By allowing students to connect textbook knowledge to life experience, Krish says schools could have a fighting chance of turning around low engagement and interest levels in STEM studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of education is to connect students to understand these laws,” he says.<\/p>\n

With students spending most of their time on mobile devices, Krish says it\u2019s ironic that schools restrict their use when they can be such a powerful resource to educate and inspire learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese phones have far more sensory, data logging, processing and display capacity than much of the equipment currently found in school labs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Krish says he is finding it quite a challenge to convince schools to give students the freedom to put aside traditional lab experiments and create their own, but he believes that student-led learning will be the future of education.<\/p>\n

And tools like PhoneLabs, he says, will play an important part in this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see every kid in the world using this,\u201d Krish says.<\/p>\n

The startup’s main focus now is to work with schools and teachers willing to give it a shot and think outside the box, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re focusing on early adopters,\u201d Krish says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will bring the passion to it and figure out how to incorporate it into the way they teach because every school is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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