ASSETScope October 2015

The Monthly Newsletter

Issue 119 | October, 2015 | www.ei-india.com

ASSET Talent Scholars - Inspiring Students Giving: An Education

ASSET

Student’s Zone

COVER Story Little Known Ways to Ethnomathematics is the Study of The Relationship Between Mathematics and Culture Using Ethnomathematics to extend the horizon of Maths in real life Maths as a subject and skill, influences and is influenced by the cultures. Giving project work to students where they use various cultures as a base to show relevance and impact of Mathematics; can help them to improve the application of learning.

In mathematics education, ethnomathematics is the study of the relationship between

mathematics and culture. Often associated with “cultures without written expression”, it may also be defined as “the mathematics which is practised among identifiable cultural groups”.

The students can be asked to prepare Maths games based on games played by people of different cultures. One helpful reference for getting ideas on this is @ http://users.wfu.edu/mccoy/mgame s.pdf This link connects us to International culture but we can encourage our students to look at traditional games played in India like Pallanguli, kit-kit, Chausar etc.

Knowing more about the Indian traditional Games @http://www.traditionalgames.in/ would further help the students.

If this project is to be allotted to higher grade students then we can give them ideas to find the Mathematics in the art of weaving,

since it is all about patterns and their arrangements. The concepts of Algebra and Geometry can be blended within this.

Teachers can also check for various lesson plans on ‘Integration with Dance/Mathematics’ by visiting this link: Link: http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/indexRe direct.php?reqURL=curr iculum/artsed/resources/ handbook/dance/28integ ration

By Ranjani Mitra, Member of Mindspark Development Team

GIVING: AN EDUCATION

By Sara Adhikari

HERE is a day from 2014 that the children of DPS, Gurgaon will always remember – even though they gave up their holiday on Gandhi Jayanthi to take part. With contributions from the entire school, 150 volunteers got together to prepare lunch and serve it to 800 underprivileged children of Shiksha Kendra Education Centre.

Student Vasundhra Jain described the experience as: “One of the best stay backs ever.

Never thought it would give so much pleasure. I hope they loved the food as much as we enjoyed cooking it.”

This is the kind of joy that is typically evoked within those who participate in DaanUtsav, India’s own festival of giving, in which more than 1,700 schools took part last year. This year many more are planning to join the week-long celebrations that start on October 2.

A simple act of giving being planned by 10 schools in Vasco, Goa, for example, is writing “thank you” letters to civic service employees – such as the police, municipal workers, firefighters and postmen and women – who, we all tend to take for granted.

While schools in Odisha are planning to clean up beaches and conduct a donation drive for stationery items, school bags and textbooks to give to their peers in low-income groups, in Kolkata schools are enthusiastically embarking on ‘7 days of Giving’. This involves different giving activities during the DaanUtsav week, including ‘Spot Fixing’ – or transforming a chosen ‘spot’ in the city which has become an eyesore.

Since its inception in 2009, the involvement of schools has been integral to DaanUtsav.

Formerly known as Joy of Giving Week, in the last six years 30 lac individuals – from autodrivers to CEOs, school children to celebrities – have participated in 100 cities across India, raising thousands in donations and millions of hours of volunteering.

DaanUtsav is not an organisation or an NGO. It is a platform for everyone to reach out and give time, money, skills, clothes, food, books – just about anything – to those who are less fortunate.

IDEAS FOR SCHOOLS 1. Sandwich Making: A great fun activity!

With ingredients from home, an assembly line of students divides up the work and in about 45 minutes, 15 children can make 100 sandwiches. These can be either distributed in an orphanage or to the homeless on the road.

Students are encouraged to converse with the person they are giving the sandwich to.

2. One Rupee Campaign: Re 1 is collected from each student every day of the week and then used in whatever way the school decides to. E.g.: could buy books/pens for children in an orphanage.

3. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: As 2nd October has been declared as Swachh Bharat Day by the government, students can be encouraged to clean the streets around the school that day.

4. Piggybank: Place a piggybank in a common area in the school and encourage students to donate whatever amount they like during the week. The money collected can be given to a cause of the school’s choice.

5. Wish Tree: Tie up with an orphanage or NGO nearby and ask them for simple wishes like a pencil box, crayons, schoolbag, etc. These are put up on a tree/plant created in the school allowing the children to grant the wishes and replace the wish tag with a smiley. A short video on how Euro Kids did the samehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjH_XH K2mxc 6. Rice Bucket Challenge: Children bring a fistful of rice from their homes, the school collects it and gives it to an NGO of their choice.

And sometimes, the less fortunate want to give too. Last year, for instance, when students of a free school for the visually impaired from remote villages near the Sunderbans, West Bengal, were asked what they would like to receive from well wishers during DaanUtsav, they insisted they would prefer to give instead.

So students from Premasree paid a visit to a home for the aged in the outskirts of Kolkata and sang and recited poetry and encouraged the elders to do the same for them. One 80-year-old lady was so charmed, she said she would like to donate her eyes – but lamented that her one failing pair was probably not the greatest gift!

In 2013, one corporation school in Thiruvanmayoor, Chennai, celebrated with a unique cooking competition where grade 8 students had to come up with creative recipes using ingredients such as bajra, wheat and millets to raise awareness about healthy eating.

And pupils of 18 other corporation schools in the southern state handmade various items including earrings, bracelets, dolls houses and other toys – even a battery-operated automatic car – which they personally delivered, with love, to the tots at their neighbourhood balwadi.

Another example of the deep impression, the experience of giving can leave on a youngster, comes from a class 5 boy from South Point, Kolkata. When he walked through the squalid Darapara slum to gift new clothes for Puja to his peers in a school there run by an NGO, his horrified observation was: “I never knew such places existed. It looked like a war zone! But I was really happy to see the children smiling and to talk to them. I will never forget it.”

Help your students have an unforgettable giving experience too and join the celebrations this year. Besides the variety of events already mentioned above, DaanUtsav volunteers have put together a further list of activities – most of which have been tried and tested successfully by schools in Mumbai.

Happy DaanUtsav!

www.joyofgivingweek.org

MISCONCEPTION Series Electricity and Magnetism

Q

Class 5: Science

In the diagram shown, when an object 'X' is brought near the ring shaped magnet, the magnet moves away from it.

Four friends are discussing what they can say about X. String

Nikhil: X can be a piece of any metal.

Shailaja: X can only be a piece of iron.

Aakash: X is definitely a magnet.

Vinay: X can either be a magnet or an iron piece Who is correct?

Nikhil Shailaja A

B. 15.7%

C. 37.5% Aakash

Vinay

What did students answer?

P

Only 37.5% answered correctly

D

The question was asked to test if students, based on their experiences with magnets, are able to figure out that only a magnet can repel another magnet.

4

How do we handle this?

It is helpful for students to handle magnets and learn about their behaviour based on practical observations. Give children a variety of magnets, e.g., a bar magnet, a horseshoe magnet, a ring magnet etc., and ask them to move around in the classroom and classify objects based on whether they get attracted to a magnet or not.

Let them record their observations in a table given below.

Around 37% of students could answer the question correctly. 29% of students selected the wrong option, D. Possible reason for choosing A: Students might have seen a magnet being attracted to iron and think that all metals are attracted to magnets. They then seem to be extending this notion to this case where the magnet is actually being repelled by the object.

Possible reason for choosing B: Students know that iron is attracted by a magnet and probably think that it will also be responsible for the repulsive movement of the magnet.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students might have seen a magnet and an iron bar getting attracted to each other or even two magnets getting repelled from each other. But a lack of careful observation has probably led them to think that even a magnet and an iron bar can repel each other.

3

No. of students 3557

X

1 Why was the question asked in ASSET test?

2

D. 28.7%

Ring magnet

C P

B

A. 15.8%

Learnings Based on the experiences students might have had with magnets, they are expected to reason out that – • if the object is iron, it will be attracted to the magnet • if the object is a metal other than iron, there will be no effect on the magnet • if the object is a magnet, the magnet (hanging) will either be attracted to it or move away from it And since the magnet is moving away in the given case, the other object has to be a magnet.

But as the data indicate, students seem to have played with magnets, but have not observed their effects carefully. They are probably confused between a magnet and a magnetic material. And so are not able to make distinction between what will get attracted to a magnet and what will repel a magnet.

Object Plastic cup Iron nail Aluminium scale Wooden cube

Metallic? Attracted to a magnet?

No No Yes Yes Yes No No No

Students often think that all metals are attracted to magnets though it is mainly iron and some of its alloys that actually do. This wrong notion may have developed because most metals they might have encountered are made of iron or steel. To clear this wrong notion, give students different metallic objects, including some nonmagnetic metals like copper, aluminium etc., and ask them to classify them. Then explain that mainly metallic objects that are made of iron and its alloys get attracted to magnets. To help them see the difference between a magnet and a magnetic material, show them what happens when two magnets are put together, i.e. they either attract or repel, compared to a magnet put together with a magnetic material, i.e. they only attract. They need not be introduced to the 'poles' of magnets at this level. It is important that they are able to appreciate this difference in the behaviours of magnet and magnetic materials first. Poles can be introduced once they are able to see the pattern of attraction/repulsion between two magnets. Let students explore the various factors, like distance, strength of magnet, materials kept in between etc, affecting attraction between magnets and magnetic materials.

ASSET Question-A-Day (AQAD) AQAD is a set of thought-provoking questions picked from the ASSET database.

Students, teachers and parents can register for free by visiting www.aqad.in

For more information about ASSET, write to us at info@ei-india.com

STUDENT’s Zone ASSET Talent Scholar – Interview The students who perform in the top 5%, in the Tip ASSET talent search in any one of the subjects like English, Maths or Science overall is awarded the title of ‘ASSET Talent Scholar’. These students receive certificate and medal from ASSET. To know more about ASSET talent Search write to us at talentsearch@ei-india.com

Ishan Ganguly DPS International School New Delhi

Interview of an ASSET Talent Scholar 1. Apart from having a thirst for knowledge, what else excites your mind?

Travelling is something that excites my mind. I love exploring new and strange places, learning about different cultures and customs and I love experiencing the sense of adventure and freedom that would have been impossible at home.

2. If you had a time machine, what period in history would you go back to? And why?

If I had a time machine I would want to go back to the Roman era. I would love to see the development of civilizations, thousands of years back and how different things were back then. I would be able to see ancient history unravel before my eyes. I would also bring some of the most groundbreaking works in science with me like the treatises written by Newton, Galileo and Einstein back with me and fast-forward science, a thousand years. When I return back to the present time, I would then see a world with technology and gadgets I would never have dreamt of.

3. Do you idolize anyone? If yes, then who and why?

My idols are those people who sought to extend the boundaries of human knowledge, rethinking what was thought to be ‘correct’ by everyone and ignoring stiff opposition. For example, Galileo Galilei showed the errors in the firmly-held beliefs of the time and Albert Einstein had completely changed what was known about physics with his revolutionary research on the theory of relativity and the equivalence of mass and energy. One day I want to be just like one of these people.

4. What is your favourite book? Give reasons why?

My favourite book is ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin, setting up the foundation for the theory of evolution and natural selection. It was a revolutionary book that spurred a change in how science was conducted and thought about. It has battled hatred and constant opposition

from religion and other dogma. It is a book that reveals a lot about not only the theory introduced by it, but also about the nature of this man with such a radical mind.

5. If you could be someone else for a day, who would that be?

I wish I could live a day in the life of Einstein or Feynman, who were one of the most eccentric and forward-thinking physicists of the 20th Century. I would love to be able to get into their brains and see the universe through their perspective.

6. If you got a chance to travel the world, which places would you like to see?

The world is a huge place and I wish it could be possible to experience the entirety of it. I want to see everything from the natural wonders like the Sahara Desert and the Amazon Rainforest, to the landmarks of history like the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China, to the cradles of knowledge like the CERN Laboratory in Geneva and the International Space Station 7. If you could make one rule in the world for everyone to follow, what would that be?

The ‘golden rule’ I wish everyone would follow is that people should not be confined to what others say and believe what they hear alone; people should not live their lives according to others. If everyone thought in their own way, we would have a more creative and innovative society that would solve many of the problems we face.

8. What do you aspire to be, when you grow up?

When I grow up, I aspire to be a physicist. I love the subject of physics because I believe it has the answers to all questions and it is such a wide field that deals with everything from the subatomic scale to the astronomical. I want to further our knowledge of the universe and the fundamental laws that govern it.

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