A year of Aura Auro Design

Aura Auro Design is now a year old! We put together a small reflection of the year gone by! Here is the pdf.

Aura Auro Design – First year reflection

learn, grow, work, teach

Sanjeev Ranganathan, Bala Anand, Sundranandhan Kothandaraman, Vaidegi Gunasekar

Jan 2016

About this note

Aura Auro Design, a project of SAIIER, is a team of engineers Sanjeev (AV), Sundar (AV), Bala (AV) and Vaidegi (Bio-region) who teach in the schools (Udavi and Isai Ambalam) 3 hrs a day and learn, grow and work in electronics 5 hrs a day. The project explores innovative ways of STEM education primarily through their STEM Land initiative. The team also finacially supports Udavi and Isai Ambalam schools, Reach for the starts program and AV maintenance.

At the end of the first year of Aura Auro Design we report briefly our activities in the first year, reflect if we are aligned with our original goals and what direction or goals we set going forward.

Brief summary of goals of Aura Auro Design

- Exploring if an alternative business model where the primary goal is personal development and growth of its staff and contribution to community can be effective in the real world.

- To create an enviroment where skilled youth can engage with children in schools to learn beyond simple procedural learning from 5^th to 8^th grades and move into application and problem solving.

- To create an alternative to examinations as a way for children to demonstrate their learning.

Some activities of the first year

- Engagement with Isai Ambalam school and Udavi school 3 hrs a day

- Participation in the Stewardship for New Emergence workshop and working with Dr.Monica Sharma to look at system parameters to include in our work to be effective in the long term

- Learning about learning – reading and presenting chapters of – what did you ask at school today by Kamala Mukunda

- Taking up two courses of Interactive Python through Coursera and make variety of python games

- Conducting an electonics class open to anyone in and around AV that used simulations and building circuits as a way to practical learn electronics

- Noticing breakdown of replicating and propogating the same patterns of education we wanted to address and the breakthrough of creation of STEM Land

- Creating a space for youth to come in and interact (and learn) with children and build things with them

- Slowly seeing engagement from children from various schools of Auroville in STEM Land (Isai Ambalam, TLC, Last School) in the hope of enabling learning engagement between children of various schools, backgrounds and nationalities

- Making progress on 3 software projects (80% completion) and 1 hardware project (90%) that was proposed by Aura Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd.

- Putting aside time (three hrs a week) during work time to read

- Tracking our growth and documenting the work of children through the blog www.auraauro.com

- Presenting a paper at epiSTEM6 at HBCSE (Homi Baba Center of Science Education)

www.auraauro.com/showcase/

- Learning to work together and collaborate, moving towards a Likert-Emberling Stage 4 organization

Papers and Articles in 2015

- Ranganathan, S., Anand, B., Kothandaraman, S. & Gunasekar, V. (Dec 2015) Using programming with rural children for learning to think mathematically, epiSTEM6, HSCSE (Homi Baba Center of Science Education)

- AV Times (Dec 2015), ALICE in STEM Land

- The Hindu (Oct 2015), Making, tinkering and engineering their way to knowledge

Beief conclusions

- We needed to keep the priority of learning and growth over work often in mind to avoid getting carried away with deadlines, products and short term efficiency. Though it requires a partner company that is understanding of our work holistically, it has been possible to make some progress on projects with Aura Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd and they are continuing to support Aura Auro this year.

- It is possible to create a space where children can learn through inspiration rather than through compliance. It is significantly more effort for teachers vs 'efficient' classroom teaching and requires us to be true to AV goals of constant progress and unending education.

We have been inspired with the work done by children to demonstrate what they are capable of when given a chance. http://www.auraauro.com/category/showcase/

Going forward:

- The work at STEM Land is meaningful not only for the children we are working with, but also for children throughout the country. But, we need a lot more rigor and research to make this happen.

- We need to find mechanisms of accelerated growth as electrical engineers and work on time management and presence to be effective at work in the time we have allocated to it.

- We need additional people to support our work at STEM Land and will be supporting another youth Naveen (AV) to help us organize the space and keep it open from 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Mon-Sat.

- We hope for a richer interactive experience with Aura Semi this year and also grow the number of youth supported in the project to 5 over the course of six months (June).

Reflections from the team

1) Bala Anand

I started the year as a novice knowing very little about work and life. Aura Auro has brought a big change to me. I have learnt a lot during this one year.

As Aura Auro is an electronics centre, it is essential that I am good at it. I knew very little at the beginning. Aura Aura has given me an oppurtunity to learn and grow as an Engineer. I have learnt to anaylse circuits, run simulations, build PCB boards, windows and linux administration, programming in python, etc... I am learning to design circuits, working efficiently by managing time and being organized and learning to work being part of a team.

Teaching was completely new to me. Over the year I have come to terms in managing a class. It gives me happiness to guide the children and share some of the knowledge I have.

Setting up STEM land in Udavi was a big learning curve. I was put in situations where I felt I was responsible. Though I did fail at times it was a learning experience.

We presented a paper in Mumabi, episteme 6 – international conference on Stem education. It gave us an oppurtunity to talk about the different things we do at school. The paper was accepted well and felt that we are going in the right direction.

Making contributions to schools and to Auroville makes me feel that I am doing something to the society around me.

Attending Steward for New Emergence (by Monica Sharma) workshop early in the year was a big positive for me. I learnt lots of tools and that helped me at work, school and personally.

Overall Aura Auro has been a place where I am growing daily, learning and experimenting new things.

2) Sundranandhan Kothandaraman

Time Lapse

The year 2014-2015 was diverse and had a lot of beautiful experiences to offer me. Being part of Aura Auro Design team the learning as an engineer was extensive. I can tell this journey is offering me a lot not only as an engineer, but also a teacher. The Whole oneness of learn, grow, work, teach has made me realize something special, that I am exploring on how to offer at various instances of being myself...

Working with children is a sense of blossomness, I see myself grow along with the children. Wanting to learn something comes form a inner space of the freedom to learn it, that is the experience I share along with the children towards their growth at STEM Land. The work shop Stewardship for new emergence has given me a whole new perspective approach to accomplishment of specific goals and evaluation measures on them.

3) Vaidegi Gunasekar

My stands are Perseverance and Agency (capacity to act in any given situation). AuraAuro laid a clear path for my career as well as social activities (teaching). In this duration of one year I learnt many things in Electronics (which I never even thought of in my under graduation) and Teaching (how to teach and classroom management). This gives me satisfaction on what I did in the entire course of learning.

As an Engineer

I can see myself that I'm growing as Engineer. I'm not doing the same work repeatedly. Everyday I'm doing something new or in different way. This makes me think, engage and apply thoughts based on my previous mistakes. AuraAuro also created space to collaborate and discuss when I face an issue or when I build something.

As a Teacher

As per my perspective, a teacher was one who give all the instructions (what to do and don't). But Aura Auro broke that idea. It created a environment where I observe and guide the students instead of giving them each and every instruction to do something. In the middle I learnt being 'effective' is more important than being 'nice' to all the children.

I also learnt that “ If you want to understand something, change it. But, if you want to change something, understand it.”

4) Sanjeev Ranganathan

Aura Auro has been an amazing growth experience and helped me undestand the gaps in my engagement with children. I find I am finally beginning to understand Sri Aurobindo's first principle of true teaching that nothing can be taught and starting to take my first steps towards being an integral teacher.

STEM Land offers a possibility of putting free progress in action with children or attempting to teach not by compliance, but by inspiration...but much work is needed, both on us and by us in the future.

References

Mukunda, K.V. (2009) What Did You Ask at School Today, Harper Collins.

A Big Thank you to

- To Saracon and Chandresh for providing us the workspace to initiate this effort.

- To Aura Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd. for supporting this initiative financially and providing challenges for us technically

- To the stewardship for the new emergence program for leadership development and helping us work as a team from possibility rather than fear

- To the many people who helped us set up STEM Land including (but not exclusively) - SAIIER for their support on purchase of materials, equipment, books, etc. For letting us revamp and use two cupboards that were up for disposal, Freecharge.com for second hand laptops, friends for purchasing robots and puzzles. Sree Nair for donating bigshot cameras he designed. Aura Semi for inverters. PCG for the second mindstorm and some new games and puzzles, children for organizing STEM Land themselves.

About our partner Aura Semiconductor Pvt. Ltd.

Aura Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company providing high performance RF & analog solutions. Aura Semiconductor was founded in 2010 with focus on developing technology leadership in the areas of RF, clocking, audio and power management.

A Reflection on “Nothing can be Taught”

I reflected upon my interpretation at different times as a teacher.

of Sri Aurobindo’s: 'The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught.'¹

When I started teaching I wanted to be a good teacher. I planned my classes, used many resources and TLM (Teaching Learning Material), had many classes with activities, attempted to open the minds of children, and took a lot of notes. A workshop called the 'Stewardship for a New Emergence' helped me notice my growth as a teacher and capture the fleeting insights - it helped me be more patient and capable of listening to children. At this time, I interpreted the first principle of teaching as the learning I was going through to be a better teacher and a better person through my experience. I took the principle to refer to spiritual experiences that are our own. For example, in a typical classroom I would teach different points of view, or of looking at something to support diversity or handle misconceptions and children would work with TLM and at times the computer².

As I continued working with children I noticed that my best classes were not the ones I prepared the most. Some classes had a flow and some, in spite of planning (and a few because of much planning) were hard. An almost identical incident or comment from children that derailed one class would have no impact in another. I noticed that this had less to do with the environment around me or what children experienced at home and more to do with the environment I was carrying with me to the classrooms and who I was being while I was in the class. I also noticed children were learning more when I was instructing less. Practically, my classes were getting more activity based with much peer learning and less lecturing. I often used computers with children creating projects to learn the material. I read up on constructivist theory and learned that each child (and adult) builds their own knowledge and I only needed to create an environment to let learning happen. I noticed that it was my 'I have a PhD and can show other ways of doing this' ego that was coming in the way of learning and was able to consciously make a choice to let opportunities to teach go, and let opportunities for learning flourish. My interpretation of Sri Aurobindo’s first principle at that time was that this also applies to practical learning through a constructivist approach³.

Some time has passed since then and I no longer see spiritual growth and practical learning as two distinct applications of the first principle of true teaching. It appears that every true learning is with the engagement of our entire being and is spiritual and helps us follow our core. Practically, now the environment I am working to create at STEM Land is such that a session with children is about self-discovery. It’s not about a procedure or the underlying concept, but about their experience. The environment offers choice and looks to the children to take responsibility for their learning. I do instruct, children do projects, but it happens when the need comes up from the children⁴.

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1. Sri. Aurobindo, (1910) The Human Mind, Karmayogin.

2.  Ranganathan, S. (2014) Program to encourage critical thinking in children – 2013-2014. Grant report by Udavi School to SAIIER.

3.  Ranganathan S., Anand B., Kothandaraman S. and Gunasekar V. (Dec 2015) Using programming with rural children For Learning to think mathematically, epiSTEM 6 HBCSE, IITB.

4.  Ranganathan S., STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) Land and Resource Center (2015) Grant proposal to SAIIER.

16 Dec 2015 epiSTEME6 conference presentation

Presentation that goes with the paper on epiSTEME6 conference.

Stroll through STEM Land

I made a 3 minute video of a stroll through STEM Land on a Sat. We (Aura Auro team) are together at the same time with multiple classes and a few children from around who join us. Here is the video:

A few notes:

- The display for STEM Land was made last week by a few children. It switches between a 5  sets of ways of how STEM Land is displayed. The children soldered the board together programmed an arduino to switch between these (with help from Naveen). Here is a blog post with more about this.

- We recently added dobble, blockus and another abalone to STEM Land. Blokus is another great strategy game and dobble is excellent for observation with different scaling. These additions are popular and extremely good in brain twisting skills. 

(We also got bounce off and jungle speed which are also very popular though I am not as convinced about their utility to learning :).)

- Children have been working quite a bit on Alice a 3D programming environment. This allows children to stretch the programming they were introduced to in scratch with a 2D stage to a 3D world. Here is a note on a game that Rati is creating.

- Blender has also picked up and few children children have learnt more or less on their own. Vaidegi also started putting the 3D printer in action first with things available online and then with learning blender herself this has added the idea of being able to create what you make in blender. The implicit mathematics and visualizing in modeling 3D images is excellent. With the printer you couple this with what can actually be made nicely.

- The 'fan' is a salvaged (thanks Lata) and the children added an external battery adapter (since the one inside had rusted) and Puni is explaining how he noticed that it acts more as an exhaust picking up things rather than what he expected of pushing things away.

- One group of students have become quite good at putting together mindstorm robots. The first one took them 2 weeks. This is their fifth robot and it just took them 2 days to put together. Here is a link with a snake robot in action.

- We have started salvaging old boards that I had around to get components we can use elsewhere and started a fix it lab. We fixed our first phone...yay, more on this later.

- A few Isai Ambalam children join us on Sat since its their day off and so do a few children from Auroville.

Playing, tinkering, making and learning is alive in STEM Land.

Experiences at STEM Land...

A few recent experiences at STEM Land that touched me...


- I have been touched how elder and younger children with similar interest are willing to work together as equals. How open elder children are to learn from younger children who have developed an expertise at something.
- We didn't spend a single rupee on labor to set up STEM Land. A big we (Aura Auro, our friends, volunteers and the children) did it ourselves.


- I had decided that I was going to let STEM Land self organize. One day some younger children came to me and told me that a couple of elder children had taken their laptops. I told them to work it out among themselves. About 10 mins later I had opportunity to work with the elder children and I enquired what happened. The elder children without batting an eyelid said that STEM Land is a place of work and they only took the laptops from two children who were playing computer games and not working seriously.


- We started working with the 9th grade girls only this term and in the beginning they would only stay in the games, materials room and not explore the technology room. This week I had a couple of girls working hard to create a story using programming in a 3-D environment and connect their mathematics to what they wanted to accomplish. Another group has been working on soldering a display for STEM Land with N.


- A few Isai Ambalam (the other school I work with) children come to STEM Land on Sat (their day off). They just felt at home and the Udavi children took care of them as their own when they are here for the whole day. A couple of Auroville children have started coming to STEM Land once a week and were unfamiliar with the programming environment and some Udavi children sat next to them and worked and helped them when they were stuck and I was only called once for help during two sessions of 1-1/2 hrs that they worked here.

- N who has completed his undergrad in EE wanted to volunteer at STEM Land I asked him not to worry about teaching children and just focus on using STEM Land facilities for his own growth. When he started working he realized that children could do many more things than him and learnt from them. 
When we were opening STEM Land we split the opening speech in 2 min sections between four of us at Aura Auro and the children were cheering for each of the youth. When we had completed the children cheered and asked N also to speak. He said, he comes here to learn and have fun.

- A couple of other youth who graduated from Udavi also come in on Sat in the afternoons and engage with children or play abalone among themselves. I get back to Aura Auro at 2:00 so I wasn't quite sure what to do when the Isai Ambalam kids were here the first week and needed to stay later. The youth said don't worry I'll stay here and lock up once they leave. Next week the Isai Ambalam kids were telling me that they will lock up themselves!