Koppal students blend art and science in the time of Covid-19

India map and Science diagrams as Mehendi designs. Credit: DH Photo

A student of Government High School at Talkeri in Yelburga taluk of Koppal district draws Science diagrams as Rangoli in front of her house.

After the first wave of Covid-19 ebbed and schools reopened, many government school teachers encountered a challenge. They had lost much of the academic year to the pandemic and there was little time left to complete the syllabus, especially for SSLC students in rural areas. Not only this, they even had to prepare the students for Board exams and infuse confidence in them.

Keeping all these in mind, a Government High School at Talkeri in Yelburga taluk of Koppal district came up with some innovative learning activities, which not only helped students understand science concepts better but also enjoy doing it.

Just before the schools closed down following a rise in the Covid-19 second wave, the schools saw a series of holidays during the Ugadi festival. Anticipating another lockdown, the school headmaster and teachers wanted the students to make the best use of the festival time to prepare themselves for the exams. They held a brainstorming session and came up with some unique ideas. Accordingly, the students were asked to draw a rangoli of diagrams from their science books in front of their homes during the festival, as part of a competition.

Festival of science

When teams of two teachers each visited the home of every student on the festival day, they were happy to see colourful rangolis of ‘digestive system’, ‘heart’, ‘nerve cell’, ‘nephron’, ‘human brain’ and others adorning the front yards. Students had formed groups of two to three people and together drawn these unique rangolis early in the morning. It seemed like the Ugadi festival had turned into a festival of science.

“Neat diagrams with labelling can fetch around 16 to 20 marks in SSLC final exams, and so, we thought of combining festival, art and science. Our school has 108 SSLC students and together, the students had drawn around 40 rangolis. Boys too actively participated in this activity. Later, best diagrams were rewarded,” said Devendra Jirali, the school’s science teacher.

He added that as students usually apply mehandi during festival, they were also asked to draw science diagrams and India map on their palms using mehandi, and they got a good response for this activity too.

“First when my friends and I told our parents about science rangolis and mehandis, they seemed not much interested. But when we began drawing rangolis, they became enthusiastic and encouraged us. We are now thorough at drawing diagrams,” said Anjali B, an SSLC student.

Letter-writing

Along with this, the teachers conducted another exercise ‘Chitra-Mitra-Patra’ where every student had to write letters on given topics addressing headmaster/teacher in Hindi, English and Kannada. They even had to draw science diagrams and India map on the postcard and mark important geographical locations on the map. This helped students perfect diagrams, map drawing and letter-writing which is a must question in language papers.

“Koppal district performed poorly in SSLC results last year and so, higher officials came up with an action plan under which they are holding exercises like identifying poor-performing schools and addressing the problem, making students solve model question papers and hold refresher course for teachers, if necessary. We felt that students learn better when they enjoy the process. So, we planned these activities,” said Babusaab Linedar, headmaster of the school.

He said that they also conducted a counselling session for mothers as they are the ones who mainly guide children in their adolescence. The session taught mothers, many of whom were illiterate, to monitor their children’s academic progress during instances like lockdown.