Category: 2011

Geography through time and space

Srinivasan K Studying the trends and patterns in geography from a book certainly helps, but what appears as understanding, most often ends up as knowledge and information if it is not reinforced by complementary real world experiences. Identifying the interactions between individuals, societies, and the physical environment demands teaching/facilitation through integrated learning. Setting the context of experiencing the real world opens a new window to an advanced understanding and thinking process. Perceived through this lens, we tried to integrate both physical and human interactions in a certain geographical location. The idea was to ensure that students acquire the finer elements of both scientific and socio-economic methodologies while processing information. The location we chose was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which perhaps are considered the last refuge and cradle of a micro-evolution in the obscure lush green rainforests of India. They also house rare aboriginal populations, dating back to a lifestyle that is at least 8000 years old, which don’t practice either agriculture or cooking. These islands in the Bay of Bengal are a lost world with a wide variety of races, forests, and natural features. The location offered a unique opportunity to understand aspects of anthropology, environmental studies, socio-economic status, and also natural hazards. Students were grouped vertically across different ages between middle and high school. All these four areas of learning were carefully packaged under the bigger understanding of humanities in a confined geographical location. This integration of different subjects has been documented exclusively through ‘Creative Documentation’ workshops conducted by an amateur enthusiast. These workshops provided a platform to research photographing and video graphing styles (especially documentaries), writing scripts, and collating them to produce a final product. Students were encouraged to write a script that involved researching the anthropology and recent history of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, its physical geography, the socio-economic status of the people there, and the hazards and disasters that the region is prone to. Besides this, students were also asked to outline concepts and collect snapshots and videos to cover their areas of research. A brief glimpse of the research documentation is presented below. Anthropology and recent history Our understanding of the six aborigine tribal communities (four in Andamans – The Jarawas, Onges, Great Andamanese and the Sentinelese) (two in Nicobar – Shompens and Nicobarese) formed the basis for understanding the people of the ancient times. A theoretical study coupled with a visit to the anthropological museum offered an excellent learning about these populations and their living habits. We

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How things work

“Why is the sky blue?” “How does a washing machine dry clothes?” “Why are there dimples on golf balls?” “How do seasons occur?” Our quest to “know more” has led to new discoveries over the ages, which in turn have resulted in amazing inventions. A sense of curiosity and a general inquisitiveness to understand how and why things work has been the key catalyst in the progress that mankind has made. Imbibing this curiosity in the young minds of students adds to the relevance and value of classroom learning in schools. Conventional teaching has generally included magic and mystery, factoids, and the memorizing of random information. More recent advancements in educational research have opened up teaching in the context of everyday objects. The focus of teaching has shifted backwards – objects precede concepts and concepts precede formulas. Teaching how things work is useful in everyday life. It explains things rather than obscuring them. It grows naturally from the ordinary everyday world. It emphasizes thought with understanding and builds a confidence to face the world. The article has been contributed by Butterfly Fields, a company working in the domain of innovative teaching learning techniques. To know more about the work the company does visit www.butterflyfields.com or call 040 2771 1020. This is an article for subscribers only. You may request the complete article by writing to us at editorial@gamart.in.

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What is the size of a molecule?

One of the first lessons we are taught in chemistry is that all matter is made of atoms and molecules. And that these atoms and molecules are tiny particles? But do we know how tiny atoms and molecules are? There are experiments which can help us determine. This article mentions one such experiment.

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Having fun with grammar

Teaching children grammar is not an easy task. This is one place kids tend to falter when learning a language. One of the main reasons for this is the popular idea that grammar is boring. Here’s how you can make grammar fun and its learning effective.

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Can teachers be friends?

It is true that children sometimes consider their teachers to be their enemies. This probably is because most teachers believe that if children have to respect them and listen to what they say then they have to appear strict. But teachers and students can and should be friends.

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The Chinese odyssey

Rudy Kong Living in China was not the only new and exciting aspect of our adventure. This was my first ‘real’ teaching job as a certified teacher, and working in China presents certain intricacies that test one’s resolve. One of our Canadian bosses once challenged us to see these as adventures rather than as irritants. I didn’t know exactly what to expect on my first day on the job. The students hadn’t arrived on campus yet and neither had two of the five teachers who had been hired from Canada. We got a quick tour of the facilities. They seemed decent enough considering China was a developing country. ‘Can we see our classrooms?’ we asked. ‘Maybe…if we can find the keys’. ‘Can we see our office and work space?’ ‘Yes…but we don’t have the keys and the doors are locked.’ ‘Can we have a look at what textbooks are available, so we can start planning our lessons?’ ‘That’s difficult because the textbook room doors are locked.’ I learned that first day that the guy with the keys was one of the most important people in China. If I ever got hold of a key, I immediately went into town to have it copied. My key chain soon resembled a janitor’s and all my work pants were worn through at the front right pocket from the mass of keys I carried with me. When the students arrived they taught me how to break into locked rooms using their cafeteria cards. This resulted in dirty looks from the Chinese staff, but it was necessary on more than a few occasions. Once when I had gone through all the proper channels and booked the library for one of my classes, we arrived to find it locked. The doors were held together with a bicycle lock. I examined the lock and noticing that it looked rather similar to my own bike lock, I pulled out my own key and gave it a try. It worked and I let my class in. When the Chinese librarian returned from her lunch break, a good ten minutes late, she demanded to know how we had got in. With a straight face I lied and said that I had found the doors unlocked. With the classrooms, offices, textbook room, and computer lab all locked up there wasn’t really much we could accomplish that first day. The principal was equally shut out and had no clue how to affect any progress, having been in

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Choosing the right flavour

Using the interesting metaphor of the variety of ice creams available today, the author talks about the different kinds of jobs that young people today can choose from. With this wide variety availabe to them, it becomes the duty of parents and teachers to help young people choose the right job for themselves.

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Don’t cut down trees…

That trees are extremely important for Man’s survival is a know fact. Then why do we cut down trees in the name of development and progress? There actually is an alternative to cutting down tress. They can be translocated. This beautiful photo essay tells us how.

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