Program Descriptions:
Important Note: Please note the original name for Seed Sensorium was Project Terra Firma. So material you will find in sections under this page could have the name Project Terra Firma in them.
Our libraries have bright color environments with murals from ethnic Indian art (Worli & Pithora) painted by our art teacher who is an acclaimed local artist from Kollegal (a local big town). Each library has 600+ Books covering all subjects including lending and reference books; subscriptions to magazines and newspapers; educational and fun game kits. Our libraries are not just establishments but actively run programs. We use the GROWBY classification scheme for books as a framework to improve learning levels. We classify all students at the beginning of the year into various GROWBY levels and track progress over the course of the year (through 4 tests conducted every 2 months). We have two library periods for each standard (III to VIII) per week during which our librarians aid the students in selecting the right books to read based on their interest. Students are expected to write a one pager on what they learnt from the books when they return the books to the library. The librarians also conduct various competitions such as newspaper quizzes; book-based dramas; speed reading and “change the story” competitions. We link books to the school curriculum and aid the students in research projects related to their class work. Students are issued library cards and we track book usage and readership throughout the school year.
In our MLL activity-based program, we have developed simple activities around specific MLLs (minimum learning levels defined by the government) and link them to select story books already available in our library. MLLs are chosen from various areas such as math, physics, math, environment and society. Our librarians train the 20 students selected for this program (per school) on conducting activities related one MLL per week (30 MLLs per year). The students are also trained on creating and submitting mind maps of various types on the MLL.
In our art program, we select the top 20 artistically inclined students per school through a drawing test. We provide art kits to each student as part of induction into the program. The art teacher conducts one class every week; covering the following modules through the school year: sketching and shading, charcoal, still life, water colors and acrylics, landscapes and portraits. All students maintain their own art portfolio which is graded at the end of each module by the art teacher. We take the students on 2 school trips per year to “encounter with nature” and to the art museum in Mysore. The best art students are “commissioned” to paint murals in the schools they study in. We also send our best art students to art competitions in nearby cities such as Mysore and Bangalore.
In our science clubs, we select the top 20 science students per school through a science test. We provide science kits to each student as part of induction into the program. The science teacher conducts one lab class every week; covering the following modules through the school year: Air, Matter, Light, Density, Magnets, Pressure, Heat and Combustion. We take the students on 2 school trips per year to the science museum and planetarium in Mysore and Bangalore. The students also conduct small science projects (“Arvind Gupta” science experiments) on their own with minimal teacher guidance. In the second half of the school year, the students conduct hypotheses-based open-ended projects in which they start with formulating hypotheses around a provided topic, followed by experimental design, conducting the experiments and collecting the data, processing the data to confirm/refute the hypotheses and forming final conclusions. All students maintain lab reports in which they record their lab work and are graded for all experiments conducted through the school year. We send our best science students to science fair competitions in nearby cities such as Mysore and Bangalore.
In our book of the month clubs, we select the top 20 students per school based on GROWBY scores and library readership levels. The Kannada teacher selects one book every month and distribute copies to all students to read. These students then fill questionnaires that seek their thoughts and opinions about the book. They also congregate every month to participate in the club meeting during which they participate first in a discussion around the book followed by 1:1 debates, character enactment, and attempts made to change the storyline. In the last 3 years, our book of the month club has used famous plays (by Shakespeare and local writers such as Girish Karnad) so that it has segued nicely into a drama club in which the same students enact the plays with their own written scripts, as trained by the drama teacher.
In our story writing program intended to inspire creativity around the locally cultural milieu, students, the students from the book of the month and drama clubs write stories every month around theme such as justice, friendship, love and doubt. Students are taught to write stories using a structure around character building, themes, contexts, settings, conflicts/dilemmas, resolutions and twists. Students are asked to write stories from their own environment and develop characters around people they know and meet. Every alternate month, students also write stories in which the context is provided in detail and the students are asked to complete the story in a “what happens next” format.
In our computer club, we teach students how to operate and use the computer and internet in their day to day school activities and projects. The program has the following main modules: Bene fits of computers and internet, windows operating system, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Power Point, Email, Internet Browsing and Search. The students also conduct projects during which they prepare power point presentations around special themes (e.g. water, tourism) and present them to teachers like real life pitches. They also work on projects in which they use all modules in practical contexts (e.g. building and presenting a project plan to start a restaurant).
We try our best to reduce student overlap across all our above programs at a given school so as to increase impact and coverage. However, we do have allow select students who have exhibited diverse interests and skills to participate in all programs (<5% in each school). Out of these, we select the top 2 students per school (20 across all schools) to participate in our all-rounder program which sits at the top of our program pyramid. In this program, these select students participate in integrated projects that allow them to exhibit all the skills related to our programs. For example, they could write a story and embellish the story with their own art work. They could conduct a science project on the periodic table, draw out the periodic table, enter data on all the elements on the computer and solve some simple math exercises on them, write stories treating some elements as characters, and act out these characters.
At the other end of the learning spectrum, our GROWBY mentoring program focuses on the bottom 20 students per school based on GROWBY levels in 3 batches through the school year. The Kannada teachers then conduct active mentoring/coaching classes for these students using established learning level improvement techniques that transitions them slowly form alphabets to words to phrases to sentences to paragraphs, with the goal of moving the students up by at least two GROWBY levels within two months (per batch).
Thus, in each of the 9 higher primary schools which are on our programs, we have ~300 students who use our library; out of which 100 (20 x 5) students in the MLL activities, art, science, book of the/drama story writing club and computer club programs; and 60 students who go through the GROWBY mentoring program per year. And finally to round up our programs, we publish a bimonthly newsletter in which we publish the best art work, science projects and stories submitted by students in our programs. We actively collect data about our programs (student GROWBY levels, library attendance and readerships, art and science project attendance and scores) and publish project monitoring dashboards every 3 months which are presented to the school principals and the local block education officer (BEO). We have an independent auditor (Shyam & Co.) from Bangalore come and audit our finances (expenditure) and program progress every month.
Our year ends with the annual day (Leonardo Da Vinci day) in which select students from each school (600 students) participate in various live competitions related to all our programs. Each school also exhibits its best work from various programs during the school year in “display booths”. Awards are finally given to the winners of the various live competitions, best booths and the best students (based on year-end scores) by the judges and chief guests.