STEM Land – Page 19 – C3STREAM Land Designs

March 6, 2017March 11, 2017

STEM Land inauguration at IsaiAmbalam

We inaugurated the STEM land at IsaiAmbalam school on 1st March 2016. This is our second center on STEM. We started the event with a short powerful speech by all of us (Arun, Bala, Naveen, Prathap, Sanjeev, Sundar and Vaidegi) and then Subash – Isai Ambalam Head Master, Kavitha – IsaiAmbalam Coordinator and Sanjeev lit up the Kuthu Velakku as the sign of STEM Land openning.

Stem Land has Montessori materials, Rubiks cubes, Strategic games, Soldering station and Aravindh Kupta toys materials. Children (including Udavi students) put up 15 stalls to show up their projects. Each was in different areas.

Some children put stalls on Strategic games, some on puzzles, some used Electronic circuits to lit up led and buzzer, Some made Soap Bubbles using Aravindh Kupta materials, Some children used Fraction kits to demonstrate the mathematical concepts (like fraction, angles, percentage), two of them used Denies cubes to play with simple algebraic equations, One used Rubiks cube.

It seemed children were excited to show their projects and explain the concept or the principle behind it.

Here is what everyone’s shared on STEM Land Inauguration.

Sanjeev:
STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering Mathematics some areas that are interrelated and can be learnt together, there are many more related areas that we will add as we work on them more. But, I would like to talk about why we use ‘Land’ and not ‘Lab’. We as educators are looking for natural learning environments and if children can learn English naturally in England we hope that children will learn STEM naturally at STEM Land.

Bala:
Stemland at Udavi School has made the children to be independent and responsible for their studies. The children have a plan and know what they want to accomplish for that week. They work either on a project or a chapter from a book. I have noticed that there has been peer and multi grade learning among the children and they learn a lot talking to each other. Stemland has given me the opportunity to have one to one conversation with a child which I was missing when I was taking a regular class. It makes me feel that we are equals. This culture has been built over the past year and I hope something similar emerges in Isai Ambalam too.

Arun:
As a team we explore Learn, Grow, Work and Teach. STEM Land came from a wild idea where children are given responsibility for their own growth and learning. I see the children more responsible after exploring STEM Land. I also learned to be more responsible working with the children.

Naveen:
Its a new experience for us to work with the young children(i.e 4th – 7th Grade). We use Montessori materials to learn math and we also do hands on work(Aravind Gupta Science Toys) to learn some of the concepts in science class. The children have the courage to create their own science and electronics projects . They are also creative and interested in doing hands on work. The children here are responsible for their learning and as well as for the materials in STEM Land.

Vaidegi:
Stem Land is a place which connects the theoretical knowledge with practical experience. I used Montessori materials to demonstrate Algebraic simple equation, Angles, Fraction, Percentage.

Prathap:
From my experience when I entered Udavi Stem land I felt it was the place to learn new things and also I felt I am responsible for my growth. I learnt programming in Python and in Scratch. I also learnt to design circuits and to analyze and simulated the circuits. In Isai Ambalam school I see my children are responsible for their growth. I see joy in learning with my children in Stem land. I see project based learning in Stem land. I also see self learning for them self and peer learning as a group.

Sundar:
In STEMLAND there are a variety of strategy games, Cast Puzzles the children enjoy playing.
In STEMLAND the three ground rules are:
1) Respect yourselves,
2) Respect others,
3) Respect the materials,
that play an essential role in creating the atmosphere.

At the end, we distributed samosa which is always a favorite snack of our children.

March 6, 2017

Fixing STEMLAND name board, and understanding SSD

Some of the 7th std children took fixing the STEMLAND name board as a project, they started off by learning how a SSD (Seven Segment Display) works. Then they assembled the units in a bread board, but there was a bug they couldn’t power up with a 9V battery or else the SSD would burn out. To tackle this they added resistors to control the current. The other bug was some of the SSD were common anode and other common Cathode:Once the type was figured out the SSD were powered up and tested.

March 6, 2017March 11, 2017

Inauguration STEM Land @ Isai Ambalam – Overview

We had the inauguration of STEM Land at Isai-Ambalam School on the 1^st of March at 10:30 a.m.
We had friends and our community members and the 9^th Graders from Udavi School who came to visit and participate at the inauguration.
Then, we all delivered speech on what we want to see and our experience with STEM Land.

After the children demonstrated and interacted with the visitors by

Playing strategic games and puzzles.
Explaining and demonstrating Montessori materials by the young children.
Explaining and demonstrating their electronic and science projects.

List of projects / area which the children had demonstrated for the inauguration.

Ayush -(Aravind Gupta Toys) was able to explain and demonstrate that “Moving magnet produces electricity” and “Cast Puzzle”.
Ganapathy,Vasanth Kumar and Sabari were able to build a “Buzzer Game” by themselves and played it with the visitors.

IMG_20170301_120508 — Co ordinator of Isai Ambalam School, Kavitha playing the buzzer game

Abarna was able to use Geo Board and demonstrate the area of rectangle and square.

Suresh was able to show conducting and non-conducting materials using an electronic project and he was able to build a “Bubble Blower” by himslef.
Gowtham and Yuvasri were able to build a circuit which lights up an LED using a switch in the breadboard.
Keerthana,Swetha,Kishore and Bala played Dobble,Pylos,Abalone and Othello with the visitors and 9^th.
The 4^th Grade children did a “Welcome board decorated with LEDs”.
Prabha was able to demonstrate his project – he had built a “Robot” and was able to communicate with it using blue-tooth from a mobile phone and rotate its motors.
The 7^th Grade demonstrated – Equations using Deines block(Montessori material).
The 9th Graders from Udavi School also demonstrated and explained how to play Kabaleo , Othello and Rubiks Cube.

My Speech:

Its a new experience for us to work with the young children(i.e 4th – 7th Grade).
We use Montessori materials to learn math and we also do hands on work(Aravind Gupta Science Toys) to learn some of the concepts in science class.
The children have the courage to create their own science and electronics projects .
They are also creative and interested in doing hands on work.
The children here are responsible for their learning and as well as for the materials in STEM Land.

March 5, 2017

Controlling a single LED using two switches

During the electronic class that is held on every Wednesday afternoon at STEMLAND, Muthu had built a circuit and figured out how to control a LED using two switch model.

His working prototype is as follows:

Video of his prototype:

January 16, 2017March 6, 2017

Savarirayulu Government School visit to StemLand

Mrs. Hemavathi ( the principal of Savarirayulu govt. girls high school) had visited us a few weeks back and spent a day at STEMland talking to children and seeing their work. Hemavathi is the general secretary of the Pondicherry Science Forum and a very respected teacher trainer in the government. She was thrilled with the motivation and self-direction of the children who she saw were able to work independently and effectively. In her visitor note she wrote that STEM land gives her hope.

She put this in action and this week she organized all her 20 odd teachers to come during the holiday to STEM Land for training. We also prepared for a 4 hrs module on teacher training including use of stewardship tools that look choice of working from possibility and fears and doing things differently. We then jumped into getting teachers who had been fearful of computers for 30-40 yrs to program with scratch. The teachers were very engaged and delayed their lunch by an hour and a half to work.

They also interacted with children and their reflections at the end of the day gave us hope of changes in attitudes both towards technology and how they work with children. We felt that this school is the first government school to whom we are going to partner with for training and continued work with the children.

Here is what we personally felt about the workshop with the teachers,

Arun:

Teachers’ sharing:

A Computer teacher requested her school teachers not to be strict to children and instruct each and every movement of the child. Instead she wants teachers to show love and care so that the children don’t move into fears. She added that children will have the courage to ask doubts if that happen.
I had an assumption that the Govt school teachers won’t be open to learning. But Kabilan (8th Grader) taught scratch to the computer teachers and they were very open to learning no matter who was teaching them.

Insight:

Freedom is an universal value.

Bala:

From people sharing:

At lunch, I told the teachers that they can sit anywhere and have their food. A teacher replied saying that ‘you are giving so much freedom to your children and we know that we are allowed to sit anywhere we want’. It struck me that not many schools give freedom to children to make their choices.
A teacher at my table said that creating projects in the computer is real learning and very different from other schools where they simply give internal marks without doing anything.
A teacher said that he stood for all the values – I had the same thought one day, for me to happy I have to be in all the universal values. Was interesting to hear someone had the same thought as me.
Another teacher shared about how she was always for others and this was the first time she had time to think about herself and her values/stand.

My insights:

I was able to look at the wisdom profile of the teachers. Before, I looked at their social profile and made assumptions. I was able to break it.
I learnt to look at situations from different perspectives/lenses.

Prathap:

Whatever I do, I have to love it and do (work). This requires sincerity, responsibility and progress. All those will come if I love what I do. This is what I learned from the teacher’s insight.
The other insight was that if I have a problem in my project, I have to see that with different perception or from all points of view and sort out the problem.
If students didn’t do their work, I have to connect their stand with what they do and make them to work from their stand instead of their fears. It doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be firm (on my objectives) on what I want to see in a larger picture.

Sundar:

What i was inspired with:

Elder gentleman, who stood for all values but had to enter with his own door into this whole set of universal values.
‘I need to express myself as i and not as we all the time, i don’t have to talk for the sake of others’
High value for children coming from not that high class background.

Vaidegi:

My insights are,

Age doesn’t matter. All I need is Enthusiasm and courage to accept and create what I want to see in the society.
Sincerity and being rigorous are what I learned from Hemavathi.
It gave a new lens to look at what is meant by a TEACHER.

January 14, 2017March 6, 2017

2016 Review – Bala, Sundar

2016 has been a challenging year for me both mentally and physically. I am able to see the difference in myself as compared to the previous year where I was literally a novice both at work and as a person.

My biggest learning at work is that I have found out ways to be more efficient and efficacious, be it automating work or asking other people for help. The two weeks we spent in Bangalore gave me an idea of how people work in the ‘real’ world. It gave an opportunity to learn from different people and their style of work. This was the year where I was able to make significant progress in my project.

Last year, Aura Auro had given me different platforms to explore more about myself ie, workshops such as Nainital, Stewardship and Vippasana(though I didn’t complete it). All of these helped me know about myself better. From being a participant to being a PC in the Stewardship workshop, the experience has been very different. As a PC I learnt that I need to be more rigorous in my practices. Providing a space for others to explore and learn at the same time gave me happiness.

As a teacher I am able to read the children better than last year. I used to get triggered a lot often but now I tend to listen to them openly. This made me address their problems better.

And as always contributing to the schools and to Auroville makes me feel that I am a part of this place and that I am giving something back to the society that brought me up right from my childhood.

To conclude, 2016 has been a year where both Aura Auro and I have progressed to the next stage. In cricketing terms, we began the innings with a four(people) and we finished it with a six!(people)

Regards
Bala

Reflections of 2016

From the of start of 2016 to the present (Jan 08 2017), Time has been short yet has taught me plenty. The person I was and the person I have become has a lot to say about the many things that I have done and experienced, for me the most important thing that I care about is the freedom and universal truth that I put together in doing things in my journey, one path that I took among many that I enjoyed doing was learning and teaching at the same time with the children and my colleagues. I have, and am working with the 6^th and 7^th std students of Udavi school. The 7^th come to STEMLAND for their mathematics class, while the 6^th are at the New Building campus of the school.

This time when participating and being part of the organization team for the SFNE made visible the unseen, the amount of work and energy, effort put together to bring out the workshop by all the members was inspiring and moment was amazing.

I am gifted to be part of a larger community and given a space to grow and enhance by competence being in the AAD’s team. I have come to know how import it is to give what I have and receive what is it that is out there.

Regards
Sundar

December 5, 2016

Trigonometry Puzzle Game

I have been working on a project for the 9^th graders. They had a small puzzle game where they were supposed to find trigonometric ratios and built the puzzle piece by piece by colouring it. Children liked it and as a team we decided to build it in scratch. I took up the responsibility and build a scratch program similar to the game they had in their text book. Here’s the program.

Children were excited and they started building the program themselves.

December 5, 2016December 5, 2016

Determining (a + b + c)2

Ajay a 9th std student from Udavi school had chose to learn Algebraic identities as a goal for his weekly plan . He wanted to prove:

(a + b + c)² = a² + ab + ac + ba + b² + bc + ca + cb + c²

(a + b + c)² = a² + b² + c² + 2ab + 2bc + 2ca

He had made this into a project and created a module for others to learn using color foam paper. The module consisted of different rectangles and squares with specific sides.

Here the red square has sides of dimension ‘a’, likewise yellow with ‘b’ and blue with ‘c’,The rectangles are combination of ‘ab’, ‘bc’, ‘ca’. and when put together the whole shape is corresponds to (a + b + c)²

After completing this project Ajay had presented it to the class, and many children where inspired and took to action in designing the same in Alice, and starting new projects in Algebra.

– Naveen & Sundar

November 26, 2016November 26, 2016

Stewardship Workshop for Deepanam Kids

We conducted a Stewardship workshop on 24/11/16 for the Deepanam school kids who have their Maths class in Stemland. We conduct this workshop for all the children we work with to have the same language for communication so that it would be easier for us to work with the kids. I also thought that it personally will help them to be more responsible towards their growth in their learning. So we conducted the Stewardship workshop to the kids and it was delivered by Sanjeev Ranganathan.

We did the STAND(possibility/inner wisdom),fears and deep listening with them. For them to realize their STAND, the children were asked “The person whom they admire the most but, the person should not be personally known”. I saw some kids explore deeply inside them for them to realize “Who they really are” and shared it to the group. Like before they also realized their socialized fears and shared it. Then we did the deep listening for the children where they did the exercises and shared how they felt. Even-though, Mahavir(Maths teacher – Deepanam School) who said he will be a spectator, joined the kids(with whom he works) and participated in the workshop. He also shared his stand and fears.

It was a different experience for me to work these kids. Some kids were really into the tools and were deeply discovering themselves. The kids were courageous to share their insights even-though they hesitated in the beginning. Some of the insights that came out were really inspiring for me. I like to see the kids using the tools and discover more about themselves and share it to the world.

November 19, 2016November 26, 2016