STEP-UP (School Teachers’ Electronics Practicals Upskilling Program) was aimed at training higher
secondary school teachers of Kerala in the domain of analog and digital electronics. It was a one-day
teacher training program held in collaboration with IEEE Student Branch CUSAT at Cochin University
of Science and Technology on 6th August 2022 from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The school teachers were
given the opportunity to experiment with electronic equipment and familiarise themselves with basic
circuit connections. 40 school teachers had registered for the event and the offline training witnessed
the presence of 36 teachers from 34 schools across Kerala.

The program began at 9:30 AM on 6th August 2022 with the inaugural ceremony which was done in
hybrid mode. Ms. Maya Menon, the Design and Publicity Lead of IEEE EdSoc Kerala Chapter
welcomed the gathering with the welcome note followed by the presiding address by Dr. M V Rajesh,
the IEEE Kochi Subsection Chair. Er. C M Varughese inaugurated the event with the inaugural address
and the program was graced with the presence of Prof. Muhammad Kasim, Vice Chair of IEEE Kerala
Section, Prof Bijoy Jose, Secretary of IEEE Kerala Section, and Dr. Santhosh Kumar, professor of
Department of Computer Science of CUSAT. The professional execom members and student members
of EdSoc Kerala Chapter had also joined the ceremony virtually throughout the meet.

By the end of the inaugural ceremony, Er. C M Varughese handled the lecture on ‘Introduction to
Analog and Digital Electronics’ where the teachers learned the basics of electronic circuits and about
the experiments, they had to do in the afternoon session. This gave them a brief insight into the
electronics domain and its applications in daily needs. Following that, Dr. M V Rajesh took a class on
‘IEEE and IEEE R10 EAC’ and inspired the teachers with the services of IEEE and its affiliated
societies. The teachers showed interest to participate in more of such activities organized by IEEE units
by the end of the event.

In the afternoon session, the volunteers sorted the electronics components into separate experiment kits
and distributed them to each participant. The kit contained LM741 IC, 555 IC, resistors of different
values, capacitors, potentiometer, LDR, Buzzer, LEDs, 9V Battery, and its holder; and Breadboard. Mr.
Harigovind M handled took the experiment on 555 IC about its timer action and astable multivibrator
circuit. The teachers were given the theory and equations related to the calculations needed for resistors
and each teacher designed their own timers and observed the output from the LEDs and buzzers. After
that, Mr. Abhinav R handled the session on operational amplifier LM741. He made the teachers very
engaging and they all together learned the action of the basic operational amplifier and its applications.
The training winded up by 4:30 PM with a feedback session from the participants. Many teachers came
forward to share their feedback and with that, the event concluded.