Posted on

Saturday at Isai Ambalam School

How to make a concrete structure using cement, jelly and sand. Children wanted to make a beam around the pond. To make a beam they wanted to they need a iron rods. We bought the iron rods and the tools to bend the rod into a rectangular structure. First time when I made a TMT Ring it didn’t come in proper way. 5th time I got it correctly. Children were excited and they were watching me seriously. They found the patterns and how to bent the iron rod. One child from 4th standard took effort to draw the actual ring size using a on the surface where I was making the rings. Then Children started to do and they found the pattern how to bend the rings. They told the that they need to bend it 90 degree. All the children used the ring structure that the boy drew which was very useful to bend the ring at the right size.

Posted on

Printing fidget spinner using 3D printer

Sooriya and Aruldeva from 9th std in Udavi wanted to learn about 3D printing. They both sat together and got an idea of printing the Olympic flag symbol with five interlaced rings. They tried to design it in Blender. Some times they had doubt and they asked to an 8th grade child and learnt how to design things in Blender.

 

It was nice to see 8th grade and 9th grade children working together and learn from each other. Then they some how changed the Olympic symbol into a fidget spinner and printed it using Cura. But they had finally printed something as they wanted and learnt to use the 3D printer. They were then playing with it. This dint stop with the fidget spinner. They wanted to continue printing things and now Aruldeva is working on the 3D printer to print a top.

Posted on

Different kind of experience with children

Saranya

RYSI (Raman Young Science Innovator) When we got the circular about Raman award. Students were so excited to do many things in different ways.I have supported few of them.It was different experienced with each children. One of the student is from 9th grade, he wants to measure the frequency.We have connected one micro phone with an Oscilloscope.With the help of an Oscilloscope we measured our heart beat frequency.

I learned about Density(formula). In water, if we place a stone in water, it will sink because the density of the stone is greater than 1. If the density of an object is in less than 1 it will float in the water. Sharani from 5th grade she did density project for Raman award. I just supported her. That was nice experienced with her.


In scratch, I learned to give input from the keyboard using sensing(tool). I have drawn a circle using scratch. Inside the program no need to give radius value I have given radius value from the keyboard.That was new for me.

Posted on

10 Principals in STEM Land

About 22 principals of various schools from mind mingle had come to Auroville to visit schools in and around Auroville. They were split into two groups and one of the groups came to STEM land. They were about 10 principals. We gave a broader picture of what we do and how children learn in STEM land.

      

Then they went around STEM land and interacted with children. They saw the weekly puzzle, weekly plan. Children showed them how they fill their plan using the software, Hariharan solved Rubiks cube, on the other side Viknesh and kabilan were demonstrating their Makey Makey project in which they made a mouse using a rubber chapel.

They looked at the Montessori materials. At the next room children were printing a fidget spinner in 3D printer, some of them were working on Alice and scratch.

The principals were happy to see children printing 3D models and sat along with the children to learn how it works. Children showed their projects which they made in Scratch, Geogebra and Alice. Children gave the principals some cast puzzles and asked them to solve it. Some of them played games along with the children.

It was interesting to see children sharing their learnings with the principals from various states without any hierarchies. Each one of the teachers learnt something from the children and were happy to be STEM land. At the end they wrote about how they felt being in STEM land. They said STEM land is a nice learning environment with freedom. One of the principals said that she was touched with what we do and wanted to implement it by herself.

Posted on

Area with Isai Ambalam children

In Isai Ambalam School I was introducing multiplication as area to the 4th graders. Children were having difficulty to do two digit multiplications. So we started using graph sheet to solve multiplication. We started with single digit and then we build on it. I found that using graph sheet children could only see the area and couldn’t build on it. Then children started to use Denies block. Children who were having difficulty started with the Dines block. Children who felt confident started to use scale and measuring tape to measure the object. In STEM land children started to measure the entire object which were in rectangle and square shape. They kept the Dines block on each object that they wanted to measure. They started with a note book and ended measuring the white board. Children also understood that they need to know the length and width to find the area. Children were able to calculate and checked how many 1cm² (centimetre) cube can fit in that area. I also introduced the unit convention to the children I told cm square. One child wrote cm and drew a square on top of cm. Then I explained him that what he wrote was correct and for writing convention we write it as cm².

.

 

 

Posted on

Second workshop on Stewardship for new Emergence

On Monday, 29th January we had the second session of the workshop – stewardsip for new emergence. In this workshop we discussed about four profiles namely wisdom, social personality, and professional From the four profiles the one that I could connect the most was my professional profile. I am now working on a digital clock, I haven’t completed it yet but the insight of being a professional reminded me to try and complete the work that I am doing. Initially I had no idea of where to start and what to do. Now I have learnt about the counters and decoders which is used in the digital clock that I am creating. I was also able to recall the Karnaugh Map which I had studied in my college days.

Posted on

6th graders building name board with SSDs

The 6th grade wanted to build name boards for their class. We started by learning how a multi-meter works in order to check for the connections in the bread board and to test the SSD’s

Now the batteries were low and the children started by opening the meters and replacing the batteries.

Once the multi-meter were functional, we started to hack and learn the connections in the bread board by testing for connectivity..Then children were given each and CA(common anode) SSD and asked to bias them to find out the corresponding light settings for each segment. With the available information they gathered they had begun to build the name boards.

Posted on

Sri.M visit to Isai Ambalam School

A person called Sri.M has been invited to Auroville. He is considered to be a living yogi who has apprenticed with Babaji in the Himalayas. He is a spiritual guide and runs Satsang foundation that runs schools, health care facilities and a Walk of Hope that spans 7500 km over 11 months. Before he came to school teacher made small kolam at the entrance and decoration with flowers. When he came to Aurovill he came to Isai Ambalam School. Many visitors came along with him to the school. He came and sat and spent about 20 minutes interacting with the children. He asked the children to sing a song. Children sang a song about Mother. Then children presented a bamboo torch and a STEM land brochure. Then Sanjeev Ranganathan gave a brief introduction about the school. The visitors started interacting with the children in small groups. Along with him children started to walk for some kilometre and came back to school.

 

  

 

Posted on

My first experience with scratch

Saranya

This is an amazing idea .When I heard the word scratch, I did not know what it is? .After that students taught me how to use it? What kind of thing we can learn by using scratch.It is like an Object Oriented Programming.Here we have to give only command like move,turn like this. We have to understand the logic. whatever the command is given by us It will draw accordingly. We can draw different shapes by using scratch.It is increasing my interest level towards mathematics. The below picture shows the circle by using scratch.

This is makes me to understand the logic in easy way.Yesterday evening I saw the two wheeler truck so I would like to draw the truck by using scratch.Then I tried to draw a two wheeler truck.The below picture can shows my interest  towards scratch.