Demystifying science

Hailing from a village called Thinaikulam, Premanand Sethurajan was an engineering student, pursuing electronical engineering. After working in the aviation and aerospace industry for several years, Premanand came across many things which he never knew of in his study period. “When I was designing the altimeter and break control system for an aircraft, I realised that I’d done none of it in college,” the techie says.

It was then that he brainstormed the idea of making creative videos for school and college students to understand science. My first video was about Bernoulli’s theorem, which was just rote learning in school, but was an important application based theorem in the core aerospace industries,” states Premanand. When he realised that he was passionate about educating students, he wanted to do it full time.

He kickstarted LMES (Let’s Make Engineering Simple) in 2014 and made experiment and application-based video clips for students. Currently going viral is his thermocol video and plastic rice experiment for their link to political issues. “Combining social issues with science, and teaching through experiments is the best way to reach students,” he adds.

The primary objective of LMES is to make the students and teachers understand how to apply every scientific concept.

The academy has worked with 63 schools so far and has reached around 7,500 students. The target students are the secondary level students and college-goers. Talking about why he chose YouTube and Facebook as his marketing platforms, Premanand shares, “Even though only a very small segment of the students has full access to Internet, social media platforms are a great way to reach many. Now, we have about 1,50,000 subscribers and most of them are students who are looking for new content and teachers who want to make a change in their teaching.”

Also participating in many teacher empowerment programmes, the founder says, “Changing the mentality of the teachers on methods of teaching is a tough task, but the most needed one. Changing a few teachers will revolutionise the school or college.”

Although educating with interesting videos and a young team might seem fun, the team provides free coaching in government schools. Therefore, acquiring funds to keep LMES going is a Himalayan task. With the support of donors, private schools and helping college hands LMES is doing good.

When asked about his inspiration, Premanand says, “My father is my strength. When I stayed at home during holidays, he urged me to go work in an agricultural field, a mechanic shop or an electronic service station instead of sending me to classes or tuitions. He instilled in me the importance of practical learning and that keeps me going. I hope all parents and teachers encourage their kids to be so.”