Hands-on learning for students and teachers: leadership training, guided visits for school groups, a competition for school projects and a masterclass on staying safe online.
Play for Peace leadership training
Agyatmitra Sifar and Swati Bhatt of Play for Peace, India, led leadership training on the Thursday and Friday, using cooperative play and experiential learning. It ran as two separate groups, one for teachers and one for students, so the training could meet each group's needs. Forty people took part.
Agyatmitra Sifar
Play for Peace, India
Swati Bhatt
Play for Peace, India
School visits
More than forty schools across the Batticaloa education zones were invited, each with a named contact teacher. A visitors' schedule divided the two weekdays into hourly slots, so each school had its own time and its own guide rather than a crowd. Schools that came included Mahajana College, Hindu College, Vincent Girls' High School, Methodist Central, St Michael's, St Cecilia's, Navalady and Oddamavady.
Students were walked through the exhibition by volunteers and handed things to try: 3D printers, robots and music production. The volunteers came from a university-access programme for rural engineering students, and some of them also joined the robotics workshops.
The MakerSpace School Project Competition
School teams brought innovation projects of their own to the faire. LKR 50,000 in prizes was shared among eight winning students:
| Place | School | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| First | A team of two from Bt/Bc Zaviya Makaleer Vidyalayam | LKR 25,000 |
| Second | A team of five from Hiluriya Vidyalayam | LKR 15,000 |
| Third | A student from Meera Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Kattankudy | LKR 10,000 |
Cybersecurity masterclass
From 2 to 4 pm on Friday 21 February, Arzath Areeff, co-founder of Digizen Sri Lanka, taught a masterclass on digital hygiene, social engineering, secure communication and protecting yourself from identity theft, free of charge.
Arzath Areeff
Co-founder, Digizen Sri Lanka
More from DreamShot MakerFaire 2025
Overview
The four days at a glance, day by day.
Frontline Innovation
Robotics, AI with electronics and 3D printing in the MakerSpace, and the innovation showcase.
Inspiring Entrepreneurship
More than fifty stalls, the Entrepreneurs Next Level workshops and the pitch winners’ stories.
Creativepreneurs
The filmmaking bootcamp, music and the DreamShot Music Festival, media and illustration, Koothu and traditional crafts.
Short talks and panels
The opening panel on support for education, innovation and entrepreneurship, and short talks each morning.
AI for Good
The DreamHack AI hackathon, its mentoring and an exhibition of our AI projects.
Experts
The panellists, experts, mentors and master trainers who taught, judged and mentored.
Partners
The sponsors and partners who made the event possible, in their four tiers.