By Yamika Damani | Junior Project Officer
Through Art and Science lessons, Agastya will provide children access to hands-on, dynamic education that fosters creative thinking, problem solving and communication skills. The Art and Science lessons take place at Agastya’s 172-acre ‘Creativity Lab’ located in rural Andhra Pradesh. The campus is equipped with excellent lab facilities and a luscious natural environment which supports the teaching and learning of science, art, media and ecology.
Art Lab
At Agastya, Art is propagated not only within the boundaries of the art classroom but also throughout the expansive greenery of the campus. The campus is extensively filled with artwork made from environmentally friendly and reused materials – children are a crucial part of this process. Attached in document are images of the Art Lab on campus and where the materialization of ideas happen.
Art classes at Agastya are run with the goal of sparking creativity in both teachers and students. As such, there is no fixed rule or textbook that the teachers have to follow when instructing students. The only caveat is that these art classes should serve to inculcate the following skills in students:
How to stimulate one’s perceptive abilities
How to find inspiration in the world around oneself
How to get over creative blocks and the fear of failure
How to engage one’s curiosity
How to recognize and use one’s creative instincts
How to work collaboratively in a team-setting
Keeping in mind the background of Agastya’s beneficiaries, art teachers ensure that materials used during classes are readily available and commonly found in the students' daily lives, such as pebbles, twigs, leaves, scraps of paper, bottle caps etc. that can be found in their community.
Science Lab
Fully equipped Chemistry, Physics and Biology labs at the Creativity Lab allow for children to learn all they can about science in a hands-on way. Apart from experiencing the fun behind science, children are exposed to lab reporting techniques, precaution and handling of laboratory materials and most importantly the application of concepts learnt.
Since Agastya doubled it’s goal on the Global Giving Challenge, the number of children benefiting will also double. Therefore over a 1 year period, Agastya will provide 3,600 children with Science and Art lessons. Each of the 3,600 individual children will visit the campus 3 times during the year and therefore we are looking at a total of approximately 10,800 interactions. For quarterly plan see table on page 2 of document attached.
Close to 500 children visit the Creativity Lab every day. Agastya is determined to sustain this pattern and encourage more and more children to redeem a quality educational experience. Agastya would thus like to acknowledge and thank all supporters for their generous donations and encouragement. Thank you and we hope that you will continue to believe in our cause to spark curiosity in rural India.
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