Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Water, water not everywhere
|
Water is becoming the most precious commodity in the world. Conserving and harvesting water is important. At the Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Tripunithura, students, teachers and other members of the staff dealt with this subject in a novel way
|
What made the whole project worthwhile was that it was an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning
WATER WORLD A skit put up by the students of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Tripunithura, as part of `Aqua'
The girls paced along the corridor, eyes shut, memorising the lines they had to speak on stage. At times they would rush to the nearest door to catch a glimpse of the proceedings, hushed giggles and then they would be back to mugging up facts, figures and details on Aqua.
The auditorium at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Tripunithura, was packed with children, teachers, parents and guests. The teachers appeared equally tense. On stage there was a flurry of activity as around 70 students of the school, from classes VI and VII, made an hour-long, comprehensive presentation on the theme of water.
Good ambience
There was never a dull moment as students sang, playacted, recited, danced, and spoke on almost everything you wanted to know about Water. The power point display provided the required back up, while music and a beautiful backdrop added to the ambience.
What made the whole project worthwhile was that it was an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning. This approach helps teachers deal with knowledge that grows at exponential proportions and students to pick up facts relating to their studies through an interactive approach.
Stimulating
It helps give the children a more relevant, less fragmented, stimulating experience. The aim is to dissolve the boundaries of areas of study and encourage learning across the curriculum.
"After the topic was selected each class was asked to collect all the information they could on it. Brainstorming session among the teachers for their inputs that can be incorporated into the inter-disciplinary concept model was sought.
Telling the water story
"We developed questions to serve as scope and sequence. They were then answered, developed with the help of various activities. The teachers and students literally worked day and night to put this project in place," explains Maya Menon, vice-principal of the school.
Beginning from the spiritual aspects of water, of the mythology of how the Ganges was brought to earth, of the story of saint Dakshinamoorthy that was narrated by the students with appropriate projections on the screen set the project on to a perfect start.
The chemical, physical, biological and mathematical aspects were presented through simple experiments that the children conducted simultaneously with the explanations provided. The percentage of water content in the human body and other living beings, total amount of water in the world, water consumption, and water wastage were demonstrated through slick narrations and on screen presentations.
The kind of work that went into the project was evident in the statistics that the children managed to garner. They had the figures of the Quality Assurance and Management Division of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology of the water wasted in a day in Ernakulam district and actual requirement.
The project did not forget to remind the importance of conservation of water. They underlined the need to reduce, repair and retrofit. The advice was to maintain and repair the household appliances like taps, flushes, showers and pipes to prevent wastage. Whenever the topic got a bit serious there was the `break.' During these breaks children came up with interesting questions, facts about water. And very often they got the answers from the audience. The two little children who anchored the whole programme were excellent.
A poem by P. Bhaskaran, that spoke about the problems that may arise if the monsoon fails, was set to music and recited soulfully by a group of girls.
Entertainment too
A short skit of a mermaid who detested water and was finally convinced of the value of water was beautifully presented. Sea creatures like the starfish and coloured shellfish moved smoothly on stage to the accompaniment of music and the sprightly narration of a bubbly little girl.
A Hindi poem that highlighted the flow of India's major rivers was presented in dance form.
Music and water is intimately related. This was highlighted through talks, chanting of slokas, a demonstration of jalatarang, and a brief exposition of Amritavarshini raga. The event concluded with a brief description of various water sports.
Today, water is the issue the world over. The fearsome, impending water war is beginning.
Dry taps, long water queues, cracked earth that once seemed a distant reality has caught our throats. This initiative on Aqua was a timely reminder.
K.PRADEEP
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
