I Can Also Make Robots! Inspiring Rural Indian Children to Learn Robotics In this world of rapidly evolving technology and technological artifacts, there is an urgent need to bridge the digital divide between those online and offline, especially in developing countries. In this paper, we propose a lowcost educational package for teaching robotics to secondary school students in rural India to motivate youth interest in learning STEAM subjects. As rural India lacks technologically trained teachers, the self paced learning approach and carefully designed program guides allow the teacher to be a facilitator even without prior technology experience. The children demonstrated enthusiasm and engagement in activities, successfully attaining the defined outcomes based upon the application of STEAM concepts. The workshop curriculum proved to be a valid approach to promote interest in STEAM subjects in rural schools of India.

Focusing on Teacher Education to Introduce AI in Schools: Perspectives and Illustrative Findings The increasing ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence in consumer products, toys, and various smart technologies and applications creates the necessity for the current generation of children to forge a finer understanding of the technology. One way to achieve such a form of comprehension and resourcefulness is through meaningful engagement with AI in an educational context. Inclusion of AI literacy and AI thinking in the school curriculum are in their early adoption phases in various countries. This paper explores the efforts put forth in AI curriculum implementation in schools through teacher education programs in India. The early and posttraining perspectives of the teachers have been observed, and the challenges reported by teachers in influential factors such as lapses in policy communication, infrastructure, pedagogy, content delivery and the influence of culture in the context of Indian schools have been discussed. The results indicate a poor belief state in the potential of AI among teachers and the interest to explore peer teaching and gamebased approaches in the classroom to introduce AI, among other findings.