Programme for Math Educators Day1

We started the program with the morning session where the participants were exposed to learn who they are and to learn why they do what they do. Participants came up with insights such as

  • I learned about my stand and my fear.

  • I came to know my Inner value of who I am and my fear.

  • How to get out of my fear.

  • How to release my fear of Judgement

  • To be authentic not to impress others

  • When I focus on my stand my fear will diminish

Then we continued with the basics Scratch course. We presented children’s stories which they made in Scratch. Then the participants also created their own stories in Scratch and learned motion and looks. After lunch we watched a video on STEM land in Udavi. Saranya presented a STEM land.

Again we continued to work on Scratch participants were asked to create a scratch project where they need to ask five questions in a way that the user can only move on to the next question only if the answer for the previous question is correct. Though that they learned sensing and control by asking questions and verifying whether the user input is correct or not. Those who completed the task moved on and created a maze game.

After a small break with some watermelon, lemon juice and bread we continued the day with Makey Makey and Finch. Arun presented Finch and gave a demo of how it can be controlled using scratch. Then Naveen made a project on Makey Makey. He did a piano and the participants also played it and enjoyed.

At the end of the day some participants who stayed went to STEM land and played few strategic games and were happy.

Programming4matheducator Day 8

Day 8:

The day started with reflections from the previous day and then Integrity lens was introduced, Poovizhi handled the session.

Then the teachers presented their projects.

The closing for the workshop began with creating my new narrative with drawing our hands and coloring in values which we stood for. Then it was passed on to all the participants and they each wrote what they saw in us. Once everyone got their sheet back it was amazing to read all the values.

Then we broke for lunch and the session came to a closure, but the participants had requested to conduct a session on Arduino with snap.

Then the Arduino was introduced (Digital and analog pins) the task was to make an LED blink for one second. Then to blink 3 LEDs consecutively. Once that was too achieved fading the LED was done. The participants had a sense of accomplishment with wires and bread boards and LEDs. Then Ram stood up and gave a spiel of thanks for the organization team and invited us to Sitiling.

Programme4MathEducator Day 6

In the morning session the insights from the previous day tool CFSR (Consious Full Spectrum Response) tool was processed by Poovizhi.

Couple of insights on CFSR (Consious Full Spectrum Response) are:

When I designed my project using the CFSR sheet I was able to see the challenges that would come when doing the project. It was clear and got more clarity about the project.

Then we did the tool Commitment for action behind complaint handled by Poovizhi and Naveen. This tool is about the three types of complaints and the way how the conversations can be shifted. After the insights from this tool we had a break.

After the break, the technical session was Scratch.

In Scratch, Triangle Inequality, Algebraic Identities handled by Sundar and Square of number and Cube root projects by Ranjith.

After the lunch break, we watched ‘Story of Solutions’. Murali took over the session in GeoGebra on Pythogoras therorem, Pie chart, Reflection and Refraction, Solar system and animations.

Solar System Project

Pythogoras Theorem

Pie chart

At the end of the day participants learnt to use functions (blocks) in Scratch, how to find square root of a number and made their projects and most of them were able to do animations in GeoGebra.

Programming4matheducator

DAY 4

The Morning session of Day 4 started with insights that the participants learned in the previous day, which was followed by a video “Story of Stuff”.The Story of Stuff is a short animated documentary about the life cycle of material goods. The documentary is critical of excessive consumerism and promotes sustainability.

Later a session was taken by Naveen where he taught the methods to draw graph and Coordinate Geometry using GeoGebra and some tasks were given to the participants. The participants were excited when different projects of the 9th graders were displayed by Arun.

After returning from Lunch , a short video on Semour Papert was shown.The Video was about how Papert recognized that computers could be used not just to deliver information and instruction, but also to empower children to experiment, explore, and express themselves.

The next session on GeoGebra was handled by Murali which included concepts like drawing shapes, midpoint and interactive inputs. The day was closed with a Quotation.

 

Programming4Matheducators Day-5

Day 5:

As usual we started the day with the insights from the previous day. The tool for day 5 was CFSR (Conscious Full Spectrum Response) which was handled by Arun.He explained the 3 circles of Solution,System and cultural shifts,values/Stand.The participants were asked to fill CFSR relating to their own projects.

After the morning break,Few of them presented their projects in scratch which they made at home.Then everyone made their daily plans.Then we had scratch session where Pratap handled the number line integers .The participants were asked to make their own number line integers using the blocks such as sensing, operators, variables, pen. Then Ranjith showed the vernier calliper project made in scratch and also he explained the working principle using a real vernier calliper that we use in stemland.

 

The Afternoon session started with a video “What makes us feel good about work (21 min)” which was translated in tamil by Ramkumar(participant). After the video, We started geogebra session.First we asked the participants to make an equilateral triangle using the center point,radius and intersection point of two circles.Then we asked them to find the ratio between perimeter of the circle and polygons inside the circle and note the observations in the inbuilt spreadsheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the evening session Naveen handled the Alice basic course.He showed some projects made by the children and then he taught the basic functions such as movements, backgrounds, looks, etc.., At the end of the day we gave them some tutorial videos to learn Alice. Finally we ended the day with the participants making their assessments for their plans and daily reflections.

Day 3 Programming4matheducators

`Programmee4MathEducators

Session 1

The Morning session of Day 3 started with insights that the Participants learned in the previous day, which was followed by the tool of “Deep listening”. Participants shared our insights and also they noticed the background conversation while learning deep listening. After Naveen took the tool “4 Profiles”. In those profiles, they learned wisdom profile, social profile, professional profile, and personal profile.

 

Insights from participants:

  • I learn four profiles, especially social profile is more attached and make me think myself deeply.
  • Not to judge anyone by the physical appearance.

  •  learn to focus my wisdom profiles on top priority in my life.

  • Which is right to me I will do that.

  • How will treat with others in public?

Session 2

Later a session was taken by Saranya. First, I asked the projects Who did the task in the previous day, I collected his/her participant’s projects and presented them in the screen. After she taught the methods to do Practical geometry (concentric circle) and laterally Abilash presented the Set Theory using scratch, and gave some tasks that were given to the participants. Participants were excited to do the task. And keep on asking the doubts to Saranya. She cleared the doubts during lunchtime itself.

Set Theory

Concentric circle

Aangle bisector

After returning the Lunch, a short video on” How to make stress your friend” was shown. The summary of the video was,

“Kelly has been treating stress as a disease that makes people sick but has now changed her tune. A study assessed people’s feelings of stress, their attitude towards stress, and correlated against public death records. The people most likely to die were more stressed, but they also believed that stress was harmful to their health. People who were highly stressed but didn’t believe it was harmful were the least likely group to die. The study shows it isn’t stressed that kills people, it’s the belief that stress is harmful. By reshaping how you think about stress, you can retool your body’s response.

When stressed, your heart beats faster, you breathe faster, and you’ll break out into a sweat. Normally we’d view these as signs that you’re not coping well, but people could also be taught that your body is preparing for action. By pumping more blood and breathing more you are preparing for something difficult, and ready to take on any challenge.

The harmful part of stress is a restriction of blood vessels, which is associated with cardiovascular disease. When people learn to see stress as a positive, the blood vessels do not constrict. The body response looks more like it is full of joy.

The next time you are stressed, think about it as your body preparing you for the challenge.

Stress makes you social. Oxytocin is a neural hormone that primes you to strengthen relationships, and help your friends. It is also known as ‘the cuddle hormone’. But Oxytocin is also released as a stress response – to make you want to tell someone you are struggling. Oxytocin is also received in the heart, to strengthen, heal and protect it from the effects of stress. As you release more of this hormone by being stressed or helping others, you increase your stress resilience.

Another study looked at how stressed people were, how much time they had spent helping family/friends/ their community, and correlated with public death records. For general respondents, a major stressful crisis increased the risk of dying by 30%. However, people who spent time caring for others had no increase in the risk of death due to stress.

The results of stress are changed by your mindset. When you think of stress as a benefit it acts that way. When you help others, you build resilience to stress.

When given a choice between a stressful job and one that is less stressful, Kelly recommends that you follow the one that gives you the most meaning, and trust yourself to handle the stress that results.”

Here is the Link of the video: https://youtu.be/RcGyVTAoXEU?t=13

Session 3

Fraction

Factorization

Speed Distance and Time

The next session on Scratch was handled by Sandhiya, who introduced the Mathematical concepts like Arithmetical operations, Fractions, and  Factorization. Abilash continued the next session and presented the Speed, Distance and Time using lists in scratch. The day was closed with a 3_Albert-Einstein-quotes-Genius1 Quotation.

~Sandhiya

Day 2 Programming4MathEducators

DAY 2:

Session 1:

On day 2 we (We refers to STEMland Team) started with Stewardship tool (Deep listen tool (S4NE)). Arun and Poovizhi processed insights from yesterday session. Here is the insights from yesterday session (Day1) and they started the deep listening tool. Arun and Poovizhi processed insights on next day(Day3) for the deep listen tool.

Stand and fear (Day 1):

Insights from Participants:

  • I noticed my fear and when I noticed my fear I want to be the best I can do.
  • Is better to notice my fear first.
  • I acknowledge it and the steps to transcend my fear.
  • I learnt to notice my stand.
  • I noticed my strength and weakness.
  • I started to practise the steps to release my fear.

Stand and Fear

Background conversation (Day 2):

  • Usually I think what to command and what to suggest now I realised my background conversation and was able to put down my background conversation.
  • Able to listen deeply.
  • Learnt to listen deeply.
  • Learnt to be aware of the background conversation and quiet it and also able to listen others.
  • Learnt to listen deeply and it helped me to have better relationship with others.
  • If I knew something and other person is conveying the same I won’t even listen to them but I realised to listen deeply also I was able to learn new which I did not know before.

        

Deep listening

Session 2:

After the stewardship session we started with planning. Usually in STEM land children use to plan for a week and they will work according to their plan. Similarly we want the participants (Participants refer to teachers) to start with everyday planning and everyday assessment. The participants filled their plan and assessed on their own.

    

Before starting the technical session we had project presentation by the participants. It helped us to see the participants progress. Then we started the technical session on scratch. We have used advanced scratch software which is scratch version 3. The participants installed the software before coming to the course. It helped us to save time. Participants started using new version of scratch and we started the basics in scratch. On first day they learnt to use sensing and making story. On second we want to involve little with mathematics. We gave small small task to everyone for example: Draw Shapes, Stories, Mandala and maze game.

Here are the projects created by the participants.

1. Maze game

2. Story

3. Happy birthday music

4. Interactive shop

Session 3:

Every afternoon we start with watching video which is related to our work. On second day we played Isai Ambalam school movie which is created by Auroville Pictures.

Session 4:

In the technical session we started to learn mathematical problem through projects. Making a projects with help of scratch3. The participants were able to get the concept first then the participants started to design the project using scratch3. During the there were many questions from the participants and we were able to answer the questions and were able to support the participants. We also gave homework to the participants.

Pie-chart project presented by the facilitator.

Concentric circle project presented by the facilitator.

We end with the quotation.

~Saranya

 

Arduino course in i-SMART classroom

-Poovizhi and Saranya

Vimal has completed B.E Mechanical Engineering and has experience in various profiles as execultive operations, Engineering maintenance, deputy manager- management systems, quality control in a glass container company 12 years. Presently with Redshade Robotics as a mentor cum trainer for embedded systems and robotics using Arduino for 2 years. He offered an Arduino robotics course for STEM land facilitators.

Siva from Isaiambalam school also joined us for the course. We started from the history of Arduino and moved on to digital input, analog input,send and receive from PC , drive AC and DC motors, Line follower using infrared sensor, solve boot loader issue and to create library to make programming easy for children to use Arduino. We also learned to snap4Arduino. He created a desktop version of Scratch3 and introduced it to us.

Learning Scratch programming (Gujarat Team )

~Saranya and Murali

(They refer to Gujarat team) Rahul  and his team from Gujarat came to visit Udavi STEMland and Isai Ambalam school STEM land. They were 4 of them and they run residential school at gujarat. They take mathematics and science for their children. They want to observe the classes (@STEm land) how we teach at STEM land. They were very surprised that we don’t teach in STEM land. They came to know about us through internet. Suddenly they planned to visit. They came only to visit STEM land ( March 28th ) . They also stayed with Isai Ambalam children for their sleep over. They wanted to observe the classes and activities. During sleep overs children go for their drumming circle they were curious to go with children and they want to learn drumming.

 

 

 

 

 

In Udavi children presented their projects and children shared their experience with them. They wanted to learn about scratch. I and Murli took scratch course for them with help of my team. We started with basic and Rahu tried his best and he helped his team to familiar with scratch. The did their best and they are continuing relationship with us. We are organizing robotics course and programming4matheducatorrs workshop for in and around Auroville youngster and mathematics teacher.  Rahul is signed up to attend P4ME workshop.

Volunteer learning Mindstorm from children

~Saranya
Visitor from Pondicherry. He has an experience in robotics by using Arduino. He wants to learn mindstorm so he visited STEM land. In our STEM land there is no hierarchy. If children knows which I don’t know I can learn from children also. That what happened at STEM land. He actually learnt from children only. He already knew how the mindstorm works but he didn’t do it by practically. He started coming to STEM land then he worked with our children and he learnt mindstorm. Now he is offering course on robotics. Here I am able to see sharing knowledge each other. Whateer we learnt we shared with him now, he is going to share about robotics.