STEM land in Thamarai learning center

~Poovizhi, Saranya

There were around 20 kids from 6th std above. Thamarai facilitators said that they wanted to teach mathematics using materials. To start with basics we used Dienes block to visualize the arithmetic operations. Children learnt about cube, rod and plate and recalled place values .  I wrote the numbers and the operator on the board and asked children to find the answer for it using Dienes block. Children were split into four teams and worked as a team. Facilitators also learnt along with the children. Through this, children got clarity of how carry over works and why do we carry over , borrow and whether we carry over ones, tens or hundreds based on the place value.

Mindstorm

A new Intern (Shivaram) has joined the team, he will be working on Responsive web page development (HTML and CSS), school software and learning to program the mindstorm.

Initially he built a small bot with wheels and learned powering and controlling the motors through the user interface. The batteries were discharging way too quick than expected and caused a halt in the learning.  Then I checked the back of the battery case there were 6 AA batteries connected in series resulting to 9V. I decided to use a power supply and showed him how to connect 🙂 . Now he was all set with uninterrupted power supply. By the end of the third day he had programmed a line follower.

Talent Show

~Sandhiya

In Isai Ambalam children, Instead of inspiration work the children practiced and performed their talents (craft, sing with the tabala, power point presentation(Early people life style) and also children practice Inspiration sayings for presenting on Wednesday to all their parents.

   

 

Puzzle Solution Box-Isai STEM Land

~Sandhiya

In udavi each week a mathematical Puzzle is placed on the stem land notice board, where the interested students who wants to solve the puzzle writes the answer and drops the answer in the solution Box.

In this method, we implemented in all stem land. From this week onwards, In isai ambalam we  also started this method.

   

 

Independance Day Celebration Aug 15th @ Isai Ambalam School

~Saranya & Poovizhi

On India’s 73rd Independence Day, 15 August 2019, children from Isai  Ambalam school celebrated the Independence day with bonfire, run , flag hoisting and cultural events.

We started our day at 5:00 am with bonfire and meditation for an hour in Matrimandir amphitheater at Auroville.

Students started their run from Auroville Matrimandir went across
Auroville communities, villages and reached the school. They covered around 7.5 km and the STEM land
team and teachers at the school followed and encouraged children to complete the run. This video documents the run.

Holiday Learning

~Sandhiya

In Quarterly exam holidays(8/10/2019 to 12/10/2019), Isai Ambalam Childrens came and repaired the EBD(Ladder and Tree House,) make herbal medicines( herbal soap,herbal tooth powder, and herbal thailam ), repaired the kitchen materials (Induction Heater, grinder)and check and changed the bulb, fans in each class.

Four teachers( Siva, Alex, Vasanth, and Narmada) supported the children.

  

First, children checked all class what are things going to repair, after they make their circuit plan for each class and implemented step by step.

   

Fixing Fan and Bulb in Stem land and Prayer hall:

    

Prasanna from Auroville Electrical service, he came up and taught basics electrical like a tester, using a multimeter to find current and voltage, and description of fuse wire.

Circuit Plan for Each Class:

  

Cleaning school

   

   

Siva explained the circuit of Induction Heater. Children were able to understand the concepts and circuit and fixed on it.

      

Testing the Induction heater using multimeter:

   

   

Fixing the Extension Cable:

   

     

Narmada and few girls worked on to make the herbal soap, tooth powder and herbal thailam.

    

Alex, Vasanth, and children worked on the EBD(tree house and ladder) and painted the library.

   

Mindstorms !!

~ Sundar.K, Abilash.S

Abilash who is taking up scaling of STEM Land in Auroville schools wanted to introduce Lego Mindstorms to children from TLC ( Theivan, Meet, and Daniel) who were interested in robotics. I (Sundar) took this opportunity to create a mixed group environment. I knew some children (Murali, Yuvan and Jeeva) who had already built robots using Mindstorms in Udavi and knew how things work. Murail came in early and set up the laptops with the instruction and PDF for building various robots. He initially was very reluctant in working with children with other background. Once all the children arrived in STEM Land we started with a few moments of silence and refreshed the ground rules. Initially they were a bit shy to speak and mingle, but as they started to work it became normal and the goal became important on building the robot. Both of the students were enjoying the session and were working very eagerly to complete (snake bot and humanoid) it within the day, due to lack of time they had to store the work in progress to be continued later next week.

Abalone championship

~ Arun, Murali

In STEMland we take up one topic in math for a week (sometimes a couple of weeks) and children are asked to explore more about the topic. We started with integers for the first two weeks and children presented many projects to demonstrate what they know about integers. (more info on our previous blog)

Followed by that we had Abalone week in STEMland. Abalone is a strategy game (more info..) and is one of the popular games in STEMland. Children of all schools were encouraged to play abalone and compete with each other. Children practiced playing for a week  with their pals.

On September 25th we had the final event. 42 children from Isaiambalam (which included ex-students) and Udavi school participated. We had a knock out round to start with and children were asked to compete with each other. Many of the children were knocked off and only four children were left to play the final round. The following four children competed  with each other in a league fashion. The one who won maximum number of games was considered winner.

  1. Ayush (ex-student of Isaiambalam)
  2. Shushma (Udavi)
  3. Vishal (Udavi)
  4. Udhay (Isaiambalam)

Ayush won against all the contestants and was declared winner.

Children starting with a circle
Knock out table
From left : Mani, Murali, Deepak
Children playing
Children playing
Children playing

 

Friday session with STEMLand scaling group – Ganit Rack,Ganit mala

~Pratap , Murali, Poovizhi

On 2019/10/11 we had the third meet with the Scaling group. More information on the second meet can be found at : Link to previous session

This time Abilash started by sharing what he did in Auroville schools .We did the Siphon experiment which  involves air and water pressure between two containers of water connected through a pipe.When the water levels are equal in the both containers,it attains equilibrium state.For more information refer the link below: Siphon experiments

Saravanan from Aikiyam has made maths materials like 1)integer game using number chart and 2 dice.It contains numbers starting from 0 to 89 (both positive and negative side).A target has to be set before starting the game i.e 25 (both positive and negative side). One die contains numbers from 4 to 9.Another die contains three (+) symbols and (-) symbols.Both dice should be rolled simultaneously.The number indicates number of boxes to move while the symbol indicates the direction to move.

2)A tool for Quadrilateral shapes with different angles using scales and pro-circles.

Sanjeev suggested Ganit mala and ganit rack to do integer calculations which should be easy for children to visualize and do calculations faster.

 

 

English sessions by content team

-Logeshwari, Saranya

Bhuvana, Tamilselvi, and Vasanth from the content team are taking sessions on English for the team. So far we have completed present tense, past tense and common mistakes that we do in speaking and writing in English. Every week on Wednesdays we have our English sessions in the morning as a team. We have assignments based on the session that was taken.

We (auraauro team members) put up blogs and reflect back the weak. In order to improve our writing and speaking skills, we are having these sessions.  The sessions clarify the doubts and it makes more sense and awareness of the mistakes when others do them or we do them.

For example, we learnt that a sentence cannot start with ‘So’. When others/we start the sentence saying ‘so’ we realize it is a mistake and we correct them.

We learn more from our mistakes and it is an opportunity for ourselves to learn them and grow.

Thanks to the content team!