Sat school with Isaiambalam

We had Saturday school with Isaiambalam children in Udavi school. Children were back from republic day holiday. Children had a lot of enthu playing games. Some of the children went to STEMland. Initially they were all playing games. Some of them were  interested in doing something with the computer.

Some of the younger children from 3rd grade were doing programming in scratch. One of the children from 5th grade made an Alice program. He was very excited when he made his first animation in Alice.

One of the children from 3rd grade made a scratch program which made a cat to move when he puts the mouse over the cat. These were tiny programs they made but they were very excited when they could do such things on their own with the computer.

Note: I will share the Alice program and scratch program editing this blog soon.

Building a microscope by hacking a web cam

Some of the 8th and 7th graders decided to come to school on their first day of Pongal holiday. Each person of the team came up different modules to build. I had an unused web cam and decided to turn it into an microscope. Naveen and Agalya were interested and so the Hack began

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Agalya unscrewed the web cam and separated all the components.

The hack was to reverse the lens.

Once the lens was reversed the children where able to see different objects we had initially checked out the display to see the RGB components.

Inverter with Arduino

Barani from 8th standard wanted to learnt something in electronics. He came and asked that he wanted to build an inverter using a Arduino. It was new for me so I told him lets learn together. Then we took all the components that are need to build a inverter. We started by writing a code to blink a LED at 50Hz. Then we dumped the program in the Arduino. Then we connected it with a CRO to see the square waveform. The square waveform was generated and we were able to see it. Then we connected the remaining circuit on bread board. We used a voltage source from which we got 9 volt DC input and fed it to a transformer. The transformer was giving 230 volt AC output. Then we connected a 5 Watts bulb to the output. The bulb turned on. We leant That using a 9 volt DC supply can give a 230 volt AC output. We really enjoyed doing that. During the week we had a Skype call with a school in Italy. Barani was able to explain the whole process to them. He felt very happy to show and share his project and learnings to them.

EBD project Animals house

In Isai Ambalam school started doing a EBD (Education by design) on birds and animals house. Children from 1st and 2nd standard got the materials from Pondy. They saw some videos in Internet about the animals house. How do animals live in forest and in village. Sakthi and Vasanthrani helped children to create a house for each animals . They have used thermo col, cardboard and ice sticks they started building the house. They have built a small village using plastic dolls of tree, domestic animal, and plastic grass. They have completed the cow shed. Children were excited in  building a cow shed. They were concentrating in doing their work.

 

 

Cutting a banyan tree

The pond that we built with children got a crack. We were figuring out how the crack came. There was a banyan tree which was near the pond. We asked a mason how this crack  has formed. Then finally he told it is because on the tree. Then we started cutting the tree with some people from Auroville. While they were cutting Isai Ambalam children were very excited. They  were asking many question to the wood cutter. They were excited when they used few ropes to get the branches to the ground with out damaging the house. Children saw the process how to get the branches down. They learnt about the equipments that they were using, such as chain saw, Carabiner, helmet, knife, different kinds of ropes, pulley  and a ear muff. They explained how to use all the materials. Children also started taking notes and started helping then to move the branches. Children came to know that the rope that they used can hold 2.2 tons of weight. They started drawing the cutting process in their note. Now they have a idea how to cut a tree using the equipments. Children were happy that they have protected their pond.

 

 

Isai Ambalam Pond

In Isai Ambalam school for one week there was no water. The bore water didn’t work. We started having a conversation how to over come this problem. During that week it rained a lot. Since it is a slope the water didn’t stay there. The ground was wet. Children wanted build a pond. They started digging the behind Sanjeev’s house. They measured the length of the pond. Then they started digging the pond. After digging they wanted to cement it. Children started buying bricks and cement bags. During sleep over we started cementing the pond and it was really a good experience with children.

We started with the first layer of cement and let it to dry. Then fixed chicken mesh on top of the first layer. We added mesh to prevent cracks. Then again we started add cement as a third layer. Then the pond didn’t look nice without a boundary. So we bought bricks with the children and started making a cylinder shape. Finally we smoothen it with cement. After that we wanted to leave make a sitting bench. We built a sitting bench.

Then we inaugurated the pond by leaving the fish in the pond. We also estimated how much cement bags were used. We learnt to find the volume of the cement bag and the pond. We also learnt to use the mason tools. Children were able to do in a group and everyone had equal opportunities to share their work.

Inauguration of clay room

Roof:

The Roof was built with slabs that were attached together with bindings, and sealed off with some material that had become torn and corroded. Thus making rain water seep in. The solution was covering the cracks with tar sheets. Naveen had got the excess sheets from the repair works at Aura Auro Design’s Lab. He also got a Flame thrower that was antique 😉 (We along with the children had a time figuring out how to light it up) It was a manual tool we had to compress air and it would send out a mixture of kerosene and air that would burn. eventually 🙂 . The children started to measure and cut out the tar sheets from a roll. Naveen  and the children placed the sheets and heated them to stick on the roof with the flame thrower.

We hope this will prevent rain water from seeping in. The roof was then painted with a bright yellow oil paint. We bought 6 liters of oil paint. Children started painting during their sleepover. It took two evenings to paint 2 coat of painting on the roof.

Painting Inside:

               

Inside:

The room was now ready to be inaugurated on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. We had as our chief guest, Swami Sarvasahananda from Ramakrishna Mission, Chengalpattu. He graced our space with his blessings, talk and music. That morning the school was abuzz with activity. Children had stayed over the previous night to participate in the dawnfire meditation. When we came from there, we were working on decorating the clay room. Garlands were made, photos of Sri Aurobindo, Mother, Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda were decorated. Lamps were kept ready for the opening. Children with help from their teachers got the PA system ready. The harmonium and tabla were arranged. Gopal from Mantra pottery joined us that morning to do clay work. It was a session that children and adults enjoyed. The Swamiji lit the lamp and invited the teachers to do the same. Once the lamps were lit, we all connected with the Divine Mother through songs that the Swamiji and children sang. For those who could remember how forlorn the room had been, it was touching to see how the same little room was shining with all of us invoking the Divine.

As one of the facilitators in creating our clay room, I witnessed the transformation of a space we had neglected over the years into a bright space that we look at every day. That we can transform our environment with one-pointed concentration, team-work, openness to learn, consecration of our work to the Divine are learnings that will stay with us and reveal themselves to us as and when we are ready to understand them.

When I was working with the children in the clay room I learnt to be patient. Involved all the children and gave equal opportunities to all the children. Learnt team work from the children. I saw sharing and caring from the children while working as a team for my self and for others.

Clay room

Painting Outside:

Third graders took responsibility to paint outside. This being a room for clay and woodwork, we wanted to paint it with a natural brownish red-soil color. We inquired with a few painters and once they understood our idea, they all suggested extracting the color from red-soil and binding it with Fevicol. Children in 5,6 and 7 stay over in school on Wednesdays. One Thursday morning, we went with pands and mumpties and collected red soil.

Once the soil was on hand, the third graders sieved it. Water was added to the soil and mixed well. This had to be filtered to extract the color. For the filter, we used some of the cloth bags we receive in grocery stores that don’t use plastic any more. We tool 4 liters of the red-soil water and mixed it with 2 liter of Fevicol. Fevicol made the paint thick. We painted the wall and as it dried up, the wall looked beautiful with hues of orange, red and yellow. We wanted a darker shade since we planned to paint patterns on the wall inspired by Warli art. So for the next coat, we added some brown water color that was on hand. A lovely dark shade was the result. The room is hexagonal giving us six panels to paint on. Over a few evenings after school, teachers and students painted patterns on the wall. We have a panel with a tree and a deer on a full moon night. One more with the Matrimandir, Banyan tree and children visiting there. Some of the paintings did not come well and we painted over them to create a fresh new wall to paint over.

Wooden Torch in Isai STEM land

In Isai Ambalam school children waned to make different types of lights to use it during sleep over. It took 2 to 3 weeks  to build a nice wooden torch. So they started cutting the bamboo during STEM land period. Once they cut the bamboo they  started to build the circuit on a bread board and then started soldering  with wires. Then they made hole in the bamboo with a drill to fix a switch. Then for the front part they really wanted to use some cone shape and to fix the LED. At first they use a waste water bottle. They cut the bottle and took the cone shape but it didn’t last for long time. It also didn’t look good. Then they were struggling with chart paper to make a head for the torch. Then students got some ideas like that what all can be made with bamboo. Some wanted to build a study lamp. These things were made  4th and 5th grades. Three girls thought it is very difficult to build a torch. When some students started to build a study lamp these girls got inspired and they also started to build a torch. When they finish making the torch Monica came to visit STEM land they presented this torch to her. Monica gave a beautiful words for those kids. I also added a image with the words from Monica.                                         

Kirigami and Origami – Bala & Sundar

We had a visitor named Ravi Alugnati a very respected resource person in Math and Science languages and also does puppetry hands on activities. He showed us some of the things he had built in Kirigami We made different shapes both in Kirigami(cutting paper) and Origami(olding paper) with his guidance. The 8th and 9th graders of Udavi and some children in Isai Ambalam also enjoyed making different shapes. I found Origami little bit tougher than Kirigami as the steps to build a shape/object is more complex. I also got a feedback from him about my teaching when I was taking class for the 3rd graders in Isai Ambalam. The feedback was useful.

Kirigami : Ravi guiding the 9th graders in making a ball..
Origami : Fan, bird and a frog.. some objects we had made
Udavi 9th graders after finishing their ball
Isai Ambalam children working on kirigami
Isai Ambalam children working on kirigami
Some shapes we had made
Some shapes we had made
Ball made using 6 strips of paper
Balls made after cutting out three rectangular papers

We started of by creating a ball that included folding of paper and interlinking different pieces. Shiva(teacher at isaiambalam school) and Pranav (Volunteer at STEMland) had jointed the workshop. During these sessions everyone was very focused, and figuring out how to link the different pieces together to form the object.

Ravi had also brought with him 3D shapes that personally dazzled me there where cubes that could be rotated and would again reform the cube.