Posted on

MES10 Reflection by STEM Team

Mathematics Education and Society 10th International Conference, Hyderabad, India Jan 28th – Feb 2nd, 2019

We went for an International Conference Which happened first time in Asia. It happened in Hyderabad university. The were 160 people from 20 different countries. It was a five day conference. We went to present a paper and a poster. In this conference they a plenary session in which one people will present a p[aper and the other 2 will respond to the presenter. Then 160 were divided into 5 small groups. Each group was about 20 to 25 people. Based on the plenary session from 25 people we again split into small group and discuss about the topic that happened in the plenary session. They also gave change for each group to ask a question. Then gathered in our group and discussed the questions. Among these question we selected a question and asked it to the presenter. The presenters answered the questions. Everyday in the afternoon we had a parallel session on presenting the paper. Paper presentation

Pratap and Poovizhi presented a paper on “factors that influence children attitude towards mathematics”. To read the paper click here.

There were about 55 people for our session and we presented in front of them. Generally it was 10 minutes presentation and 20 minutes for discussion about the paper. But for us we presented for 10 minutes and discussion happened for 40 minutes the paper was well receive by the people. After presenting the paper one of the parent came to us and she wanted her child to admit in our school. That moment we felt that we are doing a big change in the world. Some of them wanted to set-up STEM in their school and they were asking many question about the STEM land school.

Poster Presentation

On the  next day Arun presented a poster on Deep learning of mathematics by building projects  and we supported him. It was also well received by the people and some wanted to  implement our method in their schools.

 

Reflections of the team

 

 

 

Posted on

MTA (Mathematics Teachers’ Association (INDIA )) Conference at Mumbai

The conference was happening for three days. There were about 100 people from different states. We wrote a paper on how children can  learn mathematics by building project using physical technology eg. building /  construction. Virtual technology such as programming. Children can also learn conceptual ideas by programming a computer.  It helps them to break down their ideas into smaller bites for a computer to follow.  At the conference we met many people who are working on the Maths education. People who were attending the conference were school teachers, college professors and some research people.

They were many  paper presentations happening and debate were happening about mathematics. Most of them talked about the Mathematics at college level. There was a technology session happened using with GeoGebra. Where they introduced how to use this software. They showed how to find the angles and how to draw a parallelogram. They introduced all the tools to us on how to use GeoGebra. To learn more about Technology  session  Click here

Other Posters at the conference:

As I went for Epistemy7 conference. From my conference experience going with Sanjeev to the Epistemy7 I had just followed everything what he had told in Epistemy7. I followed those things in MTA conference. I had a check list and also created a directory structure with everything that I am going to present. There were about 30 poster and we need to present in an hour. Most of the people visited our poster and I was happy that we were able present our poster to everyone.  We also asked people to sign up their Email ID  to send further information. Since I took initiative to present the paper I was well prepared for the presentation. I also met many people who had already came for the  Epistemy7 last year.

 

Posted on

Babaji Vidhyashram School visit to Isai Ambalam and Udavi

—Pratap, Poovizhi

A group of 44 teacher came to visit Isai Ambalam. Sanjeev, Logeshwari, Saranya and Pratap welcomed them. Sanjeev started introducing about the school and what we deeply care about the children.

Then we each explained Some of the EBD that children made. Saranya took them to the pond and explained the history of the pond.Pond

Then I took them to the clay room and explained about the clay room Clay Room. During this time the children were not their at the school. They went to visit Matrimandir and they came back while I was explaining about the clay room. The moment children came inside the school I felt that they got blessing from the Mother since they visited Matrimandir.

Then children took initiative to explain about their EBD projects. They started with the tree house. They explained in English and it really touched me to see how much the children had progressed in the last year to be confident in front of 40 teachers to talk so confidently . They explained the entire process that took to build the tree house. Tree house

Then they took the teachers  to the clay oven that they built during sleepover Clay oven. They also explained about the India map EBD. Yuvasri and Kaviya from 6th standard explained about the India map India Map.

  

Then they took them to the garden EBD and Sabari and Suresh from 7th standard explained about the garden Garden EBD.

Then Logeshwari explained about the Kitchen waste water EBD. She answered the questions  when the teacher asked to her Kitchen waste water.

Finally all the teacher visited the class room and interacted with the teachers and students.

The UKG students told the months when the teacher were asking to them. The 6th and 7th took them to their class and showed the 5S circle that they do in their class room. They also showed the Mindstorm robot that they built in STEM land.

  

They also showed that they submitted projects for Raman Award and got a participant certification. Then they sang a song for teacher.

  

Ayush from 7th standard presented the project in Scratch.

   

Then Saranya took the teacher to the STEM land and explained what we do in STEM land. She explained the ground rules and the check in check out system that we follow in STEM land.

In Udavi

They came to Udavi after their lunch. We gave a presentation on STEM land in the i-SMART class room. They also attended the stewardship session held by Sanjeev. During the session teachers were able to find what they stand for and also were able to find their fear.

Every teacher was able to process what they really care about and found what they stand for. The teachers were happy and also took the stand and fear chart to put it on their notice board in their school.

Posted on

Vipassana Experience

~Saranya

Vipassana Technique was so good for me. It is good to practice for me everyday in life. When I went for Vipaasana I found the first three days difficult after that I realized and understood the universal truth of Dhamma. I learned to live in present moment. This made me to feel better and brighter. I noticed my monkey mind is always jumping thinking about my past and future, but not knowing how to live in present. I am practicing Vipassana everyday it helps me be concentrated, present and peaceful.

They have some ground rules, that is we should not talk to anyone, touch anyone, etc and maintain this noble silence for 9 days. These ground rules support the following the three principal ideas in Vipassana technique – Sila, Samadhi and Panya. Poovizhi has already described these and the theory in her blog and you can read this if you want to learn more.

I enjoyed the real peace and harmony. I understood through my own experience the meaning of Dhamma, it means universal flow of nature and of impermanence. Whatever sensation I feel in my body I was able to accept it and not react to it with either craving or aversion. That helped me train the habit pattern of my unconscious mind and come out of my misery. First day to 10th day I followed the rules and regulation and it helped immensely. In the final day I shared my peace and harmony to others with Metta. Whoever is reading my blog please give a trial for 10 days Vipassana course that makes you feel better and brighter and I am sure you will also come out of all your miseries.

Posted on

Presentation at Auro Sangamam

Presentation at Auro Sangamam was an opportunity for me talk about STEM land – Isai Ambalam school and the work we do here. I spoke about EBDs, sleep overs and various activities we do here. I also spoke about my life experiences and the way I studied in school/college. I learned that particular things cater to particular people and I cannot say everything that I said at Sinthanai Sangamam. I realized that this a different set of audience and the speech had to be modified. Like at Sinthanai Sangamam, I conveyed everything what I wanted to say and I thought the audience were able to get something out of it.

We also had stall set up for STEM land that was open through out the day. We had seven segment displays, games and puzzles at the stall. It was one of the busiest stalls and people who came enjoyed it. We also met new people and gave away some brochures.

Pictures coming soon!

Posted on

Ankit’s visit

We had a person named Ankit who made a visit to STEM land. He has been cycling across the country for the past seven months and has passed through 16 states. He is keen on visiting places where there are different educational systems. He spoke about his journey to children of Udavi and Isai Ambalam school. Children were interested to know about them. I personally was inspired and fascinated by his journey. I learned about different places and how people are helping him in his journey.

At Isai Ambalam school he used the physical clay map created by the children in the 6th and 7th grade and walked them through his journey starting at Jaipur going up to Turtuk in J & K down to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and then to Tamil Nadu. This made what children have created more realistic and children wanted to know a lot more especially about the places with snow.

He also records his journey and is hoping for a Guinness World Record – not his primary focus though. We wish him good luck!

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

Silicon Structure

Arun and I, we wanted to make a 3D Silicon structure using Judo Straws to see how it is structured. We found the below video on You Tube and replicated the same

One silicon atom has four shared oxygen atoms. The centre part(the four green straws joining together) inside the cube are Silicon atoms and the corners of the cube are each 4 shared oxygen atoms.

Posted on

Automating the bore well motor.

We had a serious  water problem in isai Ambalam school. We built a pond as a EBD project with the children. Then we realized that water is very precious. From that day we are aware of water. Then one day children noticed that the tank was over flowing. They came and asked how to turn off the motor automatically. I told them that I don’t know how to do that. Then they asked me that I studied Electronics  and  became an engineer couldn’t solve this problem. Then finally I wanted it to be automated. Through this process I learnt about relay. I was afraid to work with 230 volts and it was the first time for me to work with direct 230 volt.

Posted on

Pebble Garden

Children from Isai Ambalam school went to visit Pebble garden. There he explained how to do mulching step by step. He explained how to do a bed and its size. First we have to collect dry leaves and branches. Then dip them in the water started to build a bed. Make a thin layer of with the dry leaves and add soil on top of the leaves. Do it for three time then add charcoal at the third layer. Again do the same process 4 time . Add charcoal in the 6  and 9 layer. After that he explained hoe to treat the charcoal. After doing mulching we have to wait for 2 month and then only we can use it for planting. Finally he explained the process of  vermiculture. It was an interesting trip to learn about mulching and about vermiculture.