Update – Jul 2022:

This year, we had a very short break between school years. The 2021-22 school year ended on Apl 120, and the 22-23 school year started on May 16th because the Karnataka government decided to start schools early this year (usual start date in previous years was June 1) to get some lost time (from Covid) back.
Key Ending Stats from 2021-22: Last year, we ended the first full year (barring from the fact that we started the school year only in Sept 2021 due to Covid).
  1. Schools: Our program ran in 15 distinct schools. We had 9 schools in Seed Sensorium (Ajjipura, Ramapura, Kannur, Shagya, Bandalli, Cowdalli, Lokkanahalli, Hanur and Halagapura HPS in Hanur taluk), 5 schools in Cafe Sensorium (Annurkeri, Gundlupet, Raghavapura, Kuthanur and Shindanapura) in Gundlupet taluk) and 1 school in Hybrid mode (Kempaiyanna Hatti in Hanur Taluk)
  2. Students: In 8 Seed Sensorium and 1 Hybrid schools, we had 1,040 students using our libraries; 699 students in the 6 clubs and 420 students in the remedial program for students with learning challenges. In the 5 Cafe Sensorium schools, we had 392 students in 5 clubs (no All-Rounders club and Computer Club in only 2 schools last year in the CS program). Thus, we had a total of 1,091 students in our clubs and 420 students in the remedial program.
  3. Devices: We had deployed 60 tablets in the 5 Cafe Sensorium + 1 Hybrid school; and 11 laptops (5 laptops for the Computer Club in Seed Sensorium; and 6 laptops for teachers to score Cafe Sensorium.
  4. Staff: We had a total paid staff of 16 (8 librarians, 2 project coordinators, 5 teachers and 1 project team lead)
  5. Total Expenditure: We spent $27,697 on our entire program inclusive of employee salaries, materials for our programs, device purchases and annual day
What has Changed for 2022-23: 
  1. Schools: We have added 5 more schools to the Cafe Sensorium program (Padgur, Honnashettarahundi, Nenekere and Bannitalapura in Gundlupet Taluk; and Yellemala in Hanur Taluk). We stopped Seed Sensorium program in Cowdalli HPS in Hanur Taluk due to poor student participation last year
  2. Devices: We have deployed 110 tablets (purchased 40 more tablets this year); and 19 laptops (for the Computer Club in Seed and Cafe Sensorium programs – we purchased 8 laptops this year in addition to the 6 laptops for teachers to score Cafe Sensorium)
  3. Staff: We hired one more project coordinator for Cafe Sensorium and a remote teacher to run the All-Rounder club for Seed And Cafe Sensoriums; and to provide remedial support for the Cafe Sensorium schools.
Key Starting Stats for 2022-23: We spent the first 3 weeks (from school start) to register new students and onboard new schools. Our programs in all these schools started officially on June 6th for Seed Sensorium and June 14th for Cafe Sensorium. We also updated content on our website to start the school year fresh.  
  1. Schools: Our program is running in 19 distinct schools. We have 8 schools in Seed Sensorium (Ajjipura, Ramapura, Kannur, Shagya, Bandalli, Lokkanahalli, Hanur and Halagapura HPS in Hanur taluk), 10 schools in Cafe Sensorium (Annurkeri, Gundlupet, Raghavapura, Kuthanur, Shindanapura,  Padgur, Honnashettarahundi, Nenekere and Bannitalapura in Gundlupet taluk; and Yellemala in Hanur Taluk) and 1 school in Hybrid mode (Kempaiyanna Hatti in Hanur Taluk)
  2. Students: In 8 Seed Sensorium and 1 Hybrid schools, we have 655 students in the 6 clubs and 420 students in the remedial program for students with learning challenges. In the 5 Cafe Sensorium schools, we have 664 students in 6 clubs.  Thus, we have a total of 1,319 students in our clubs and 420 students in the remedial program.
  3. Devices: We have deployed 110 tablets in the 10 Cafe Sensorium + 1 Hybrid school; 19 laptops (13 laptops for the Computer Club in Seed Sensorium; and 6 laptops for teachers to score Cafe Sensorium)
  4. Staff: We have a total paid staff of 18 (8 librarians, 3 project coordinators, 6 teachers and 1 project team lead)
  5. Total Expenditure: We plan to spend ~$26,500 on our entire program inclusive of employee salaries, materials for our programs, device purchases and annual day. The budget is expected to remain the same as last year in spite of program scope expansion and more supporting staff since most of our device purchases occured in 2021-22.

Update – Jan 2023:

  1. As you all know, this year has been our biggest to date by far, as we are running our programs in 19 schools in 2 taluks (Hanur and Gundalpet) that are 100 Kilometers from each other. 8 of these schools are in our onsite Seed Sensorium program (all in Hanur Taluk) and the other 11 schools are on our online Cafe Sensorium program (9 in Gundalpet Taluk and 2 in Hanur Taluk). In Seed Sensorium, we have 661 student-club participants in the 6 clubs (Science, Art, Book of the Month + Story Writing + Drama, MLL Activity-based Learning, Computers, All-Rounders), i.e. 515 unique students with 22% overlap, i.e. 22% of students participate in more than one program. In Cafe Sensorium, we have 736 student-club participants in the 5 clubs (Science, Art, Book of the Month + Story Writing + Drama, MLL Activity-based Learning and Computers), i.e. 608 unique students with 17% overlap, i.e. 17% of students participate in more than one program. And we have 320 students (20 students per school x 8 schools x 2 batches) with learning disabilities who go through our remedial learning program. Thus, we have a total of 1,717 student-club participants (1,423 unique students). We also have 1450 students using our libraries in the 8 Seed Sensorium schools.
    Even though we started the year on time this year (first week of June), we realized that it takes time in village settings to onboard students to the programs (and minimize overlap down to a target level of 20-25%), especially in Café Sensorium where 608 unique students had to be registered on our website with unique email addresses by two project coordinators (students are not well-versed with self-registrations). Thus, our programs officially started only by July 15th. We need to work on shrinking this time next year.
  2. Our curriculum covers 7 core modules + 2 project-based ‘bonus’ modules in each club. To date, we are at 70% completion in Seed Sensorium (in 5 program months, with November being Dussehra holidays) across all our clubs and schools with 2.5 months remaining in the school year (mid-March 2023). We feel that we are on target to complete the curriculum in all clubs in Seed Sensorium this year. In Café Sensorium we are at 55% completion – we are on target to end the year with 80% completion. Given that this is the first full year for Café Sensorium (last year was cut short due to Covid), we have learnt that we might have to reduce the curriculum scope for Café Sensorium w.r.t. Seed Sensorium in the coming years. The expected 4-week cycle (See – Do – Submit – Score) for Café Sensorium does get stretched since students have to record every activity and upload them online (as opposed to just demoing their work to teachers in real time in Seed Sensorium). Hotspot bandwidth constraints also hinder student’s ability to upload all videos and images on time. Further, our teachers take more time to score Café Sensorium modules than Seed Sensorium modules since they have to download the submissions, correct them and enter the scores online. Poor internet connectivity in small towns and villages (where the teachers live) lengthen the scoring cycle as well. We plan to incorporate the learning next year and reduce the Café Sensorium curriculum to be around 80% of the Seed Sensorium Curriculum. To give you an idea, this year, students have uploaded 3,660 images and videos as module submissions this year in Café Sensorium. Please note that theory online programs are not as bandwidth intensive given that all submissions are text based and done directly online without need for uploading videos of conducted projects. On the bright side, we have proven that we can successfully run online programs for experiential learning in rural settings, with both teachers and students stemming from villages and small towns. 600 students have learnt how to access content online and have become internet savvy. They have also enhanced their communications skills through recording of videos to demo their work. Our village-based teachers have also become computer savvy and adept at online teaching methods.
  3. This year, our management process has gone totally online. We track the progress of both Seed and Café Sensorium on our website every week. Further, the progress on Café Sensorium is automatically tracked by our website since students download assignments and submit assignments online; and teachers score online. Even our independent program auditors submit their audits online on our website. Please follow this link to see our entire website in action including our online program management process: https://youtu.be/_A465X9HuFY
  4. We made a proposal in Sept 2022 to Amadeus India to get laptops for our computer club in both Seed and Café Sensorium (and for our teachers to score Café Sensorium lesson modules). Even though we have been using laptops in our Seed Sensorium programs for a while now, we needed more laptops to deploy to Café Sensorium schools (tablets do not work for the Computer Club since they do not support MS Windows based lesson modules) and for the All-rounder program in both Seed and Café Sensorium. Amadeus India was generous enough to donate 20 laptops to ASHRAYA which we have already started using in our Seed and Café Sensorium programs. We would like to immensely thank Mr. Mani Ganeshan, Head of Amadeus India; and Ms. Rashmi Navendu for their help. Please follow this link to see the usage of laptops in our Café Sensorium program. https://youtu.be/8trgPFHY7zk
    I visited 6 schools in both Gundalpet and Hanur taluks over two days in Aug 2022 and two more days in Jan 2023 and interacted with the students.

    1. Please follow this link to see the video on my trip in Aug 2022: https://youtu.be/SuLOflNTXTo
    2. Please follow this link to see the video on my trip in Jan 2023: https://youtu.be/Zz6XMMzhtPc
  5. One of the students who participated in our art club from 2015 to 2018, Vignesh (he has been by far the best art student we have had in our program over the last 15 years), joined CAVA, the 2 years-art degree program based in Mysore University. We are sponsoring his education and in return, Vignesh spends one day every month training our students in Café Sensorium. It gives us great pride and joy to see life come full circle. Maybe someday soon, Vignesh could be a teacher in our programs. Please follow this link to see some recent art work by Vignesh. Mind-blowing indeed. Especially when you realize that he is only 16 years old and is the son of a pani-puri vendor in the town of Ramapura. https://youtu.be/pQACxw71iuw
  6. Progress/artifacts by Club:
    1. Science Club:
      1. We started a new series where we explain how specific science concepts are seen being applied in real life (e.g. where do Newton’s third law and Bernoulli’s principle manifest themselves in real life). These allow students to extend what they learn from science experiments and projects to beyond the classroom. Please follow this link to see a video related to these applications: https://youtu.be/4EsiHZAB1K
      2. We also started a special series of projects related to Solar Power for select (best) students. These students have started working on these projects and will complete them by the end of January 2023.
    2. Book of the Month Club:
      1. The students in the Book of the Month club enacted dramas on Macbeth and Merchant of Venice (in 4 Café Sensorium schools and 5 Seed Sensorium schools). Please follow this link to see them enacting the plays in front of their school staff. https://youtu.be/XPpAaQMUXR0
      2. In our story-writing program, we started asking the best students (based on the original stories that they write) to read out their stories, preceded by our teachers interviewing the students about where they go to get inspiration to write their stories. Please follow this link to see a video on a few students reading out their stories.https://youtu.be/9OoqiQcE5A4
    3. Art Club:
      1. On Jan 10th and 11th, the best students in the art club in both Seed and Café Sensorium, painted murals in two schools (Ajjipura HPS in Hanur Taluk and Nenekatte HPS in Gundalpet Taluk). The theme of the mural is that we all come to this world naked and leave this world in plain clothes, but in-between we celebrate and suffer our differences in all colors and forms. Please follow these two links to see the videos related to the painting of these murals (which were both done in a span of 6 hours each).
        1. Ajjipura HPS: https://youtu.be/nmSKx2KZuGU
        2. Nenekatte HPS: https://youtu.be/NhvUier_q-4
      2. Please follow this link to see some artwork of students in both Seed and Café Sensorium this year. We need many a budding Vignesh every year, and we hope to follow them through that they come full circle just like Vignesh. https://youtu.be/ptEFA1lF3Xg
    4. Computer Club: Please follow this link to see a video on the survey project conducted by students in our computer program this year: https://youtu.be/byGNW7CdE5E
    5. MLL Club: Please follow the links below to see videos on Mind Maps drawn by students in our MLL club
      1. Best mind maps: https://youtu.be/QYFX8iQ1U50
      2. Mind map demos: https://youtu.be/2467UFATJPo
    6. All-Rounder Club: Please follow the link to see a video on select all-rounder program students (who participate in all skill-specific clubs plus the all-rounder club) demoing their work in all skill-specific clubs: https://youtu.be/o8lwTxslPcA
  7. We have a new donor in our donor community – Ms. Shreya Subramaniam. We welcome her to our fold and thank her for her support.
  8. We published newsletters (authored by Mr. Savukar Raj, our project lead) separately for Seed and Café Sensorium in Dec 2022. Please click on links below to see the newsletters (please note that the newsletters are in Kannada). We plan to release one more newsletter series in Mar 2023.
    1. Seed Sensorium Newsletter – Jan 2023: https://www.ashraya-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ASHRAYA-Seed-Sensorium-Newsletter-Jan-2023.pdf
    2. Cafe Sensorium Newsletter – Jan 2023: https://www.ashraya-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ASHRAYA-Cafe-Sensorium-Newsletter-Jan-2023.pdf
  9. We started a 2 month open competition for the top students participating in our all-rounder program in which they will do projects related to story writing, drama, science, art, mind maps and computers) that are related to the villages they come from. The title of this 2 month project-series is “My Village”. Students will start making submissions over the coming two months, at the end of which the best students will be given awards.
  10. What is ahead this year:
    1. Like already stated, we plan to complete 100% of our curriculum this year in Seed Sensorium; and ~80% in Café Sensorium.
    2. Students in our book of the month club will enact one more drama (Nagamandala, a famous play written by Dr. Girish Karnad) in the month of Feb 2022.
    3. Students in our art club will paint one more mural in the month of Feb 2022. Theme for this mural is TBD.
    4. Students in our MLL club will create mind maps on specific topics on a large canvas (during the school year, they draw these mind maps on small-scale paper).
    5. Students in our science club will complete the solar project series.
    6. Students in the all-rounder club will complete submissions in the “My Village” project series
    7. We will decide in the coming week as to whether we use the remaining time in the school year (2.5 months) to try to complete the curriculum, or to reserve some time for an annual day (prep for an annual day usually takes a month).
    8. We plan to conduct the annual day in the first week of March 2023 in both Seed and Cafe Sensoriums
    9. We will conduct year-ending certification exams. All certificates for Café Sensorium will be awarded online this year (just like in 2021-22).