Vision 30 – Day 2 : Me and my environment
Visit to the Indian Music Experience
Learners engaged in a multisensory experience of exploring the cultural heritage, aesthetics and historical journey across genres of music in India and the world. Learning about instruments in the sound garden and the laws, science being the sounds of nature, the birth of ragas, emotions and its subtleties. They sang, danced and thumped to the rhythm of their favourite instruments.
Parents teacher’s conclave
Panellists; Kartik Sawhney, Founder I STEM – Tech entrepreneur, holds a master’s Human computer interaction, received the Queens’ Award from the majesty herself , national award for empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Vidhya Y Founder Vision Empower – inspiring innovator, technology developer, designed solutions motivational talks, gold medallist (IIITB), first blind student to study math in Christ.
Both leaders had eye opening sessions with educators and caregivers about milestones and obstacles in their journeys as students and as working professionals. Kartik shared his childhood experiences and the role of familial support; nurture and urged teachers and caregivers to focus on strengthening learners’ foundational skills, dispositions and knowledge during early years being the core for lifelong readiness to learn. His parents believed in his capabilities and talents respected his educational choices and advocacy journey.
Vidhya Y emphasised on holistic approach to education of the whole child. She grew up in a village and grappled with the stigma and acceptance but did not let her experiences shape her capabilities undeterred she cherished her love for numbers, travelled 60kms from village to city every day during graduation. She did not let governments, and the Boards decide her fate and expressed gratitude for her teachers and institutions who believed in her, encouragement from professors at IIITB that gave birth to her purpose of founding Vision Empower, to support children who do not have the support system.
During the Q& A teachers and caregivers expressed their concerns about audio formats of learning and the contemporary relevance of teaching braille; they asked for multimodal resources to provide engaging and meaningful content to learners. Both speakers emphasised the relevance of braille being important for holistic literacy opportunities and visualisation of concepts, exploration of creative fields and careers for learners, not letting their disability define their abilities.
Student Sessions followed by Presentations
Mr Deepak Prabhu Matti, Cognizant CEO, attended students’ presentations on the below topics
Understanding life science and its relation with physical sciences
Science
1) Microorganisms: Friend and Foe:
Learners explored the concepts of cell; the basic unit of life forms, cell organelles: nucleus, mitochondria.
– Animal tissues (epithelial, connective, muscular, nervous) Plant tissues (meristematic & permanent) through an integrated approach using tactile resources and content on Hexis, the refreshable braille display and audio its descriptions on Iris, handheld device that provides individualised learning opportunities and exploration of concepts, images at their own pace.
2) Acids, Bases, and Salts
Metals and Non-Metals- learners explored the nature of acids, bases and salts through hands on lab experiments and demonstrated their learnings for their peers and found the colour of litmus paper by giving prompts to Gemini.
3) Energy
Learners explored the different types of Energy Electricity, Magnetic Effects of Electric Current along with Sound, Heat and Light concepts. During presentation of these concepts with their peers’ learners came up with creative techniques, they asked the gathering to heat up their palms and feel the heat on their cheeks, asking their friends how sound travels using musical rods.
Our impact on the environment
4) EVS
learners explored the flora and fauna around the campus premises and the impact of man and their actions on the environmental degradation. They engaged in discussing the contributions of environmentalists and climate change activists like Saalumarada Thimmakka and Greta Thunberg. They shared their experiences of growing around water bodies, life forms and biodiversity.
Connecting dots with data and measurements
5)Maths
Learners explored concepts of geometry, angles, graphs (tactile bar graphs). Demonstrated for their peers using the touché tech geometry kit on paper for the gathering.
Math on Computer: learners demonstrated data handling concepts on notepad and shred the keyboard shortcuts that can be helpful for their peers while working with large data sets.
