Hands-On Projects
Defining ‘Concept Based Education’
To build inquisitiveness in young minds, students of PYP 3 from Victorious Kidss Educares were presented with several questions like whether they have ever wondered how Egyptians could build the Great Pyramids thousands of years ago? Or how could they possibly have moved or carried such heavy blocks of rocks, over long distances or tall heights, and that so in an age without modern technology. How could they come up with techniques which surpassed, today’s so-called modern technology and employed apparently, nothing but bare hands to build extremely articulate yet precisely designed mega-machineries?
Such questions develop their natural curiosity to know more ~ to become INQUIRERS.
After understanding six simple tools: lever, wedge, wheel and axle, inclined plane, screw and pulley, they became THINKERS. They sought out to recognize their use in daily activities and everyday items. They analyzed those simple tools around their classrooms, in the play areas and around their home, helping them become conscious RESEARCHERS. After knowledge and analysis, it was time to create an efficient design plans. These were to be executed in the form of a Hands-On Project challenging them to work through highly-collaborative teamwork as responsible ORGANIZERS.Planning, designing, working as a team and using tools to create something useful, is what engineering is all about.
Victorious Kidss Educares believes in giving a hands-on experience to kids to help them understand a particular concept better. Knowledge, creativity and problem-solving skills are the three pillars to accomplish amazing feats while facing the real-world challenges. Students from other sections, other classes and teachers visited these young intellects and were amazed to see their innovative and colorful projects. They COMMUNICATED about their project ideas and functioning to their audience. Those champions REFLECTED upon and explained their project work as everyone present simply gazed in awe. Such activities reflect on their creativity, originality and inner imagination.
As explained by Swami Vivekananda, repeated over, time-and-time again, ‘Education is the Manifestation of the Perfection already in Man’. Encouraging our students to be Inquirers, Thinkers, Researchers, Organizers, Communicators, Reflectors and most importantly Principled etc., inclining with the attributes of IB Learner Profile, is how we help them manifest that ‘Perfection’ from within them, and re-shape the India of tomorrow.
