Geography Workshops at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kolar — report
When you gather 30 children from classes 7, 8, and 9, and provoke them to think and act, you will find that they are more than equal to the challenge.
This happened on 27 and 28 January 2015 at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Kolar, Karnataka.
On 27 January, the children learned about the idea of grids on a flat surface and latitudes + longitudes on a globe by actually marking them based on rough calculations.
On 28 January, in the morning, the children went on foot through a part of their school neighborhood and mapped the area. Different children chose different aspects to map while some chose to make a general map (none to scale). After the exercise, we talked about various aspects of the work they had done. One question was: “What is the one thing that you learned from today’s mapping activity?” Among the answers, Hemant’s answer was uniquely reflective. Here’s what he had to say.
Here are selected scenes from the mapping workshop and the maps that the kids produced. Among all the sessions of this topic to date, these are among the top 5% in terms of quality and imaginative production. We concluded the session with an exposition of the critical skills they had shown today.
Amazing!
In the afternoon, we had a workshop on the “Geographies of Edward Snowden” in which we mapped out the Edward Snowden saga on a world map. We also discussed many different concepts of geography such as sovereignty, air space, overflight, diplomatic immunity, stationary and mobile sovereignty, privacy, physical geography, international relations, and so on. Rich geography! The children were very energetic and the session was lively as they argued various points of the topic with the presenter and among themselves.
The teachers who were in the sessions also happily joined the children in the workshops’ activities.
Here are selected scenes from the afternoon workshop.
Following the workshop, teachers discussed some of the doubts they have in their work and got them clarified. TIIGS will, of course, offer every support possible to them as the GeoVidyaa Geography Centres and their activities develop.
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