Creativity Adda Delhi Newsletter, May 2019
Highlight Of the month
Creativity Adda organized a Summer camp from 15th May to 15th June which saw participation by 150 students across different age groups. The enthusiasm and passion in students to learn different things was quite evident from the consistency and punctuality they demonstrated in attending the Summer Camp despite the scorching summer heat. Each hub had special workshops during Summer Camp.
Sunny, graphic design student of community media lab, made the poster below. It is a coincidence that the people of Odisha is facing the terror of fani cyclone. We are praying and sending love and support from here. Be safe!
COMMUNITY MEDIA LAB
How many of you have felt like running out from your history classes or have been scolded for sleeping through the history classes? There are no double thoughts about how monotonous history lessons are for children because of multiple reasons — teaching methodology, disinterested students, the irrelevance of history chapters, etc. In the month of May, we conducted one such experiment by taking students with good photography skills for a tour of historic monuments in Delhi.
The Adda students visited Lodhi Tomb, Humayun Tomb and Safdarjung Tomb along with a facilitator to understand Architecture photography while also learning about the historic relevance of these tombs. The students were so excited to learn about this new photography type that they even looked at monuments’ pictures online the previous day to try clicking the same pictures themselves. The visit served the purpose of both a historical visit as well as a photography workshop.
Students learned to stop motion animation in powerpoint which is a quite new and exciting experience for them. One of the Media Lab students, Abhinandan (class 7) started excelling at stop motion animation in just a span of 2 weeks. This was quite evident from the way he designed two movies in stop motion animation after writing short stories. Looking at his progress, he has the potential to become a creative and enthusiastic film maker in future. Our media students did the fruit photography.
Akash came up with the idea of shooting this video and other photographers join him. Few students also focused on Adobe Photoshop and learnt by either observing the facilitators or helping senior students in their work.
One of the students, Rohit Kumar (class 8) edited few selected photos using Adobe Photoshop which was greatly appreciated by everyone. He did this by learning on his own and the final work was commendable. Rohit says that the facilitator and senior students have been very helpful and
supportive in teaching him video editing. They let him learn by letting him do editing for short parts in different videos. He has been coming to Creativity Adda for 6 months now and says, ‘I get the freedom to try different things here, understand my interest and then finally, focus on one of the things I’m completely interested in.’
This inspirational film was made by the Media Team at Creativity Adda Delhi. It is based on the real-life story of Faiz, one of the boys who is part of the Creativity Adda and passionate about roller skating. The Media Team (ages 14–17) is looking for more creative assignments, ideas and exposures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i-LGbNAmfg&feature=youtu.be
We also try to focus on collaboration with other hubs to develop a sense of team work within students. We worked together with Slow Food Junior Chef’s Academy to shoot a video for the recipe of Ragi balls and Ragi cookies.
DJ mixing workshop with Pia!!
In the summer camp we had an interesting workshop on DJ mixing. It was really exciting for the children asthey found an exposure of a new option in life.
SLOW FOOD JUNIOR CHEF’S ACADEMY
Do you remember being taught about different food types during your initial school days? It has always been difficult to memorize the food items rich in different types of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, etc. However, if these health and fitness basics are taught by giving hands-on experience to children, it would become easy to remember and can also be applied in their everyday life. With the same thought, we introduced different food themes for 3 different weeks to expose them to various cuisines
The first week had Mexican theme where different Mexican cuisines were introduced to children. We started with the basics of Mexican food which involved making them understand the type of ingredients used, cooking process followed, other food culture and tradition in Mexico, etc.
Shyam, one of the students, says that it’s great to know more about cuisines outside India. This gives them exposure to other types of culture as it is not possible for them to visit all places in the world. He says he never expected he could also get this type of opportunity at Creativity Adda. The students were taught dishes like Mexican Fajita, Veg Taco Salad, Mexican Pasta, etc. as part of the Mexican cuisine. Shashank, the facilitator, says, I was very happy to see students cooking Veg Taco Salad themselves when I got late for the class on one of the days. It was a confirmation for me about the good work I had been doing with the students.”
Baking !!
Anurag, a guest chef, conducted Baking workshops for the students. Starting with the basics of baking and types of equipment needed, they learnt how to make Cinnamon roll, Veg Tart, Pizza and Walnut Banana Cake. All the students were very enthusiastic and curious to understand as baking was a new concept for them. Roshan, a new student, asked about the specialty of a Cinnamon Roll and the reason for Cinnamon in food or baking. Deepak, another new student, wanted to understand the difference between baking powder and baking soda.
For the third week, we decided to keep a Drinks menu considering the scorching heat in Delhi. We wanted to explain to the students how to prevent themselves from getting dehydrated in the summers and to encourage them to look beyond unhealthy drinks like Coca Cola and Miranda.
Watermelon juice, Aam panna, Masala Chaas and virgin mojito were few of the drinks we made here. All these drinks help to keep the body cool and can be easily made at home. It became easier and quicker
for students to understand the benefit of these drinks and the ingredients that go into them. Atif, a student, renamed the watermelon juice to watermelon rocket juice because he feels all charged up and refreshed after drinking it. That was funny but true.
As part of developing entrepreneurial skills in the students, we conducted a Community Project outside the school for 3 days. The objective was to make them understand the basics of selling and customer service and boost up the confidence level. We set up a stall for selling summer drinks that had already
been taught during the class. Initially, it was challenging for students to speak to customers and explain to them how the drink has been prepared, etc. However, after attending a few customers, students did quite well in selling the drinks. While we couldn’t recover our investment, but we met our objective by letting them talk to customers. Sajid, an old student, says “I realized I need to work on communication skills with the customers. Other than that, I’m always confident about the food I have prepared.” This
type of project was very well received by everyone and we plan to do it in the future also.
We had a bagel making workshop with Kanku from Udaipur.
DESIGN STUDIO AND MAKER SPACE
One of the most fascinating challenges given to the students this month was to build a mobile charger from a 9V adaptor. In such kind of new activities, the facilitator Saadat explained the basic concept to students and then lets them think about how it can be made into an actual product. The idea behind following this approach is to inculcate the spirit of teamwork and problem-solving, instead of simply spoon-feeding
the solution.
Sanjeev Kumar, a student, says that his 2 years of work at Makers Space has provided him a lot of technical knowledge to the extent that he can repair the TV sets and setup box on his own at home. As he is quite experienced now, he also helps and guides other students in building different
items. With a constant focus on understanding basic concepts behind the items we use in our day to day lives, students continued with building electrical items in the month of May. They tried Electric board connections in different ways without hesitating to ask any type of question. We also encourage students to discuss all types of doubts with facilitators and peers as that is one of the important qualities an individual should have as he grows. They also built flashlight circuit, clap light circuit, Bluetooth
amplifier and remote-control cars. All these items were built using the waste materials picked up from the surroundings.
We organized a workshop for Arduino which is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on which they built a Basic Arduino Led Blinking
circuit. After this experience, students want to learn more about such software and platforms.
DANCE MUSIC AND ART ACADEMY
We sponsored 5 students to attend the 2-day ‘Artist League Workshop’ on 11–12 May. The objective was to expose them to more types of dance forms, encourage them to work harder by looking at the skills of other participants, and pass on their learnings from the workshop to other students at Adda. The workshop had 6 faculty members from Mumbai and Delhi and approximately 110 participants across India. Krumping, locking, free style, commercial jazz, urban and street jazz were the different kinds of dance forms that were taught during the workshop. Raj, a student who attended the workshop, says he
is grateful to Creativity Adda for giving him the opportunity to attend this workshop. He says, “After looking at other participants, I realized it’s just the beginning for me and I need to work harder to reach a professional level. There’s a lot I need to work on my techniques, expressions and acting.” We are glad to see how the way these workshops can be extremely inspirational for the students and we would continue this in the future as well.
This month, we introduced a routine of one-hour Cardio exercises to build up strength and stamina in the students. Initially, it was difficult for us to engage students in this activity, however, after explaining them the importance and impact it can have on their dancing skills, they were quite consistent in attending the exercise classes.
Music Hub
Music hub had a 2-day Instruments workshop conducted by Green Silk Road on 22–23 May. Around 24 students from Adda attended this workshop to understand about different types of African instruments. Ansh, a music student, says, “I have never before seen these types of instruments. These instruments play sounds of nature like birds, wind, etc., which was new to me. I’m curious to learn other types of music besides Indian classical and Bollywood, and these workshops give me a starting point.”
https://www.facebook.com/creativityaddadelhi/videos/603268973514362/
Around 12 students at Music Hub also did studio work by recording a song.
Besides, regular classes in harmonium and singing were conducted for 6 beginner students and 10 junior students.
https://www.facebook.com/creativityaddadelhi/videos/1180160785487961/
SPORTS AND FITNESS HUB
The main focus for the month of May was the week-long Table Tennis workshop conducted by Darpan from 27–31 May. https://www.facebook.com/creativityaddadelhi/videos/2370444086510039/
COMMUNITY VISIT !!
Our team went to Gopalpur for a community visit to meet parents how they are feeling. Poonam Bakshi Ji, mother of Chirag, took the lead with our team and talked to parents and encourage other parents to send their children to Adda.
