We had a very interactive intro session. Pleasantly surprised to see 15 + people including kids who attended the session.

We started with an interesting experiment using ice blocks and the Archimedes principle.

All kids talked about one thing they would change about school. Parents talked about what they would do if they went back in time.

We are all set for the actual sessions from next Saturday October 28th, 2:30 – 4:00 pm.

All we discussed is posted below.

Super excited …

Learning to Learn by Stable Bow

What is Stable Bow?

Most Indian schools develop hard work, diligence and ability to deal with volume of learning. However, preparing for real life requires Exploration, Experimentation, Experience and Expression. These are not possible the way our schools are designed.

Instead of competing with the school system, Stable Bow wants to complement that system. The name is inspired by the poem ‘On Children’ by Khalil Gibran.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

What it is not?

It is NOT a coaching center for helping with competitive exams. There will never be any competition or grading in any activities at Stable Bow – yet the expectations of effort will be high. One of the core beliefs is that children are inherently curious and enthusiastic. One needs to get out of the way to enable their learning.

Einstein and Seymour Papert’s words are an inspiration for the methods.

“I never teach my pupils. I only provide the conditions in which they can learn” – Albert Einstein

“I am convinced the best learning happens when the learner takes charge” – Seymour Papert, MIT Media Labs

How will this work?

The program has 5 sessions, every saturday from 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM. October 28th – November 25th.

There will be 3 types of defined activities in those sessions. The goal is to make the sessions active and interactive – so the environment becomes a source of learning as much as the content.

#1 Learning to Learn – Explore

This will a combination of watching a video and an open discussion on three topics – Growth Mindset vs Talent Mindset, Deliberate Practice and Focussed Mode vs Diffused Mode.

#2 Build a project – Explore, Experiment, Experience

All children will be organized as teams of 2-3. Over 5 weeks the teams are required to build a ‘Hydraulic System’ – applying Pascal’s principle. Using an online collaboration platform – teams will follow a structured process of understanding the concepts, proposing ideas, creating a technical design, managing the tasks, building a prototype, testing the solution and creating a video. The last session is a presentation by all children to their parents.

#3 Synthesize content – Expression

Children will be given 2 videos to watch, analyze and synthesize. This is to develop the ability to critically study any content, go beyond the obvious and write your thoughts effectively.

Link to the Intro session document

Questions that were asked …

1. Will children need to spend money to build the project? No. I intend to have a budget limit of may be Rs. 500-700. This is about creativity and tinkering
2. Will all children do the same project? The topic is the same. Build a Hydraulic System. But each of them will be required to come up a creative way to build one
3. Can you do it on a Sunday? No, not for now. We will need to stick with the Saturday evening plan
4. My child cannot attend the sessions but wants to do the project. Can we do that? Suggest not to. Think most of the value is in the discussions and collaboration
5. Have you done this before? No, not with children at this scale. Have run large scale learning programs as a part of my current job
6. Will it only be about Physics? This project is about Physics. But it will require design, collaboration, planning and communication as well. Intend to may be add other areas in the future like programming. I love physics and programming. So probably will stay around those
7. Is this a one time activity? Hope to do this on a more continuous basis from January. But need to make this session work and ensure children enjoy this
8. Will you share the necessary links and material? Yes, will create a whatsapp group and share in that. Will also train the children on using the online WIKISPACE platform for learning
9. What should we do next? Just add yourselves to the whatsapp group and send your kid with the fee for the session on Oct 28th Saturday at 2:30 PM