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Tarang STEM Accelerator serves high-potential learners in residential Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) and government schools, turning schools into launchpads for deeper STEM. The program is a collaboration with the Innovation & Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF) and the Central Square Foundation (CSF). Students move through compact concept sprints, inquiry projects, and real-world challenges; curate their work into portfolios; and present at campus showcases. Teachers co-facilitate and are active partners in each learner’s STEM journey. The model blends on-campus sessions with guided online touchpoints and mentoring circles led by ISPF experts. With project-based, hands-on experiential pedagogy at its core, the program builds essential 21st-century skills—critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and problem-solving—and deepens STEM understanding. This program helps students nurture their fullest potential and shape their futures.

Tarang Accelerator Programme

Tarang Accelerator is a flagship programme in collaboration with the Innovation & Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF) and the Central Square Foundation (CSF) to nurture high-potential students from JNVs and government schools. The programme began in October 2025 and will complete its first pilot in March 2026. This year, it is running at JNV Doddaballapura.

Need for this Programme

India’s school education system serves ~25 crore children. Many students come from underserved communities and face systemic gaps in identification and support. With most interventions beginning only after Grade 10, much of this potential remains untapped and underdeveloped.

To bridge this gap, CSF is introducing a new High Potential Students workstream in 2025 to support bright young minds from underprivileged backgrounds in becoming future innovators, researchers, and leaders. By 2030, we aim to transform the learning journeys of 1 lakh students by equipping them with the skills, support, and exposure needed to thrive in higher education and high-growth careers. Through this work, we are committed to advancing equity and excellence, empowering young minds from every corner of India to realise their full potential.

Key Program Outcomes

• Students: Bridge the opportunity gap by improving conceptual understanding and unlocking mastery and aspirations through the nurturance of STEM and life skills.
  
• Ecosystem: Create an ecosystem that identifies and nurtures high-potential students, fostering a collaborative network with exemplary partners and interventions to provide holistic support.
• Policy: Inform scalable solutions by developing replicable models and tools for identifying and enriching high-potential students.
  

Pilot goals

Design an effective, sustainable programme for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) and other residential school systems, with clear differentiation and positioning across three interlinked strands:

• Curriculum Integration – alignment with subject learning outcomes and classroom timetables.
  
• Extension – pathways for advanced exploration, career exposure, and project-based learning.
  
• Life Skills – embedded competencies like critical thinking, scientific literacy, collaboration, and resilience.
  

Method

• Experiential learning: Students build conceptual foundations using hands-on science activities and real-life case-study problems to deepen understanding.
• Project-Based Learning (PBL) at the core: Learners work in iterative build–test–reflect cycles anchored to real problems. They plan and prototype, gather evidence, present publicly, and improve using feedback rubrics—so understanding transfers beyond the classroom.
  

Project Highlights — Data Snapshot

• Year of Initiation: 2025
  
• Initiated by: Central Square Foundation (CSF)
  
• Implementation Partner: Innovation & Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF)
  
• Location: JNV Doddaballapura (Karnataka)
  
• No. of Schools Covered: 1
  
• No. of Students Benefitted: 80
  
• Grades Covered (Year 1): Grade 7
  
• Learning Resources Provided: STEM kits, worksheets, project kits
  
• Facilitation Model: ISPF educator-led sessions with school science teachers’ support
  
• Key Impact Areas: Student participation, critical thinking, communication skills
  
• Programme Duration (to date): 2 academic years

Project Anveshan is an experiential STEM education programme designed to make science learning engaging, practical, and inquiry-driven for school students. Initiated in 2024, the project is an Aditya Birla Jan Seva Trust (ABJST) initiative, implemented by the Innovation & Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF).
The programme supports approximately 1,200 students from five government schools in Rishra, Hooghly, West Bengal, with an aim to develop scientific curiosity, conceptual clarity, and 21st-century competencies in young learners. ISPF provides hands-on STEM kits designed using simple and repurposable materials, along with guidebooks and worksheets for students. A trained ISPF educator conducts regular activity-based science sessions in each school, supported by the school’s science teachers.
The project began with students of Grades 7 and 8 in its first year (2024), who have now progressed to Grades 8 and 9 in the current academic cycle. Over the last two years, the programme has demonstrated remarkable outcomes:

• Significant improvement in students’ critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills
• Increased classroom engagement and participation
• Positive feedback from teachers, reporting effectiveness and usefulness of the programme
• Strong receptiveness among students toward hands-on, activity-based learning

Sustained over two consecutive academic years, Project Anveshan continues to create an inspiring learning ecosystem, transforming science education by shifting classroom instruction from rote-based to exploratory and experiential learning. 

Project Jigyaasa is a nationwide STEM learning initiative by ISPF, supported by Siemens India, that aims to spark curiosity and strengthen scientific thinking among middle school students in government schools across India.

Built on the principle of learning by doing, Jigyaasa combines hands-on exploration, digital learning, and community engagement to make science and technology accessible, relevant, and exciting for every child.

The STEM Clubs form the core of Project Jigyaasa, and students are the heart of these clubs. Each club is a vibrant space where children explore, experiment, and express ideas through hands-on activities, experiments, and design challenges. Club students also play a key role in enabling peer learning within their classrooms, helping their classmates understand concepts through demonstrations and group activities.

The clubs are supported by on-ground ISPF teams who mentor teachers, coordinate activities, and help sustain regular STEM learning in schools. Teachers, too, are trained and guided to lead these sessions and nurture inquiry-led learning environments.

Students engage in a wide range of activities under Jigyaasa, including:

• Astronomy sessions to observe the night sky and understand our universe.
• Robotics and coding modules that build creativity, logic, and computational thinking.
• Digital literacy sessions that strengthen technological confidence.
• Environment education sessions promoting sustainability and awareness of local ecosystems.
• Exposure visits to industries, science centres, and innovation hubs.
• Career guidance sessions introducing learners to STEM pathways and opportunities.
• STEM fairs and exhibitions where students showcase their ideas and innovations.
• Celebrations of special days like Engineers Day, National Energy Conservation Day, and other thematic events that connect learning with real-world relevance.

Through Jigyaasa, ISPF envisions a generation of confident, creative problem-solvers who can think scientifically, act responsibly, and innovate for their communities.