Tinkering with Electronics & Circuits - workshops in rural schools in the Himalayas, Dec 2015

In Dec 2015 I was back again in the Himalayas to conduct Timeless Lifeskills workshops in small, rural schools. The theme of the workshops this visit was ‘Tinkering with Electronics & Circuits – Thinking Like a Scientist’.

The underlying objective of the workshop was to make students aware of how experts in different disciplines think. In other words focus of the workshops was on 'Modes of Thinking'. Figuring out how a scientist thinks (observation > hypothesis > experiments > inference) is different from the way say a historian thinks (claim > evidence > primary > secondary sources > provenance) enhances students' perspective and helps them become independent, deep thinkers.

Exam centric schooling focuses only on learning (some would say mugging up) content. The aim of these workshops was to not only learn content in a fun, hands-on way but also learn disciplinary skills. 

Over a two week period I interacted with 250+ students and over a dozen teachers from 10 rural schools. The first school I visited was Aarohi Bal Sansaar in village Satoli 30 km from Almora.

On day-1 students learnt the basics and tinkered with different electronic components like bulbs, motors, LEDs, buzzers and switches to understand concepts like conductors and insulators, polarity, parallel & series circuits, voltage and current etc.

We then moved to creating Electronic Art by embedding LEDs into paper circuits using copper tape and button cells.

This idea of Electronic Art made with copper tape, button cell and LEDs was inspired by MIT Media Lab's 'Paper Circuits' project - http://highlowtech.org/?p=2505

Another example of electronic art:

We used different types of material to create Electronic Art & Craft. Here we are using conducting dough made from ordinary flour (aata) mixed with salt. This project was inspired by University of St Thomas' 'Squishy Circuits' - http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/

A Rangoli made from conducting play dough.

We then made simple Electronic Toys.

An attempt to make a Hovercraft.

We then made Scribbler Bots – simple machines that can draw. Inspiration for this came from San Fransisco Exploratorium's project - http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/scribbling-machines

A Scribbler Bot in action.

An example of Scribbler Bot art.

Can I make this balloon fly? Hmm, I have to make a hypothesis, conduct experiments, draw inferences and keep improving my design… I have to think like a scientist!

Students learnt about electricity and how they could use a simple DC motor as a generator. This project is inspired by Arvind Gupta's Toys from Trash initiative - http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/films.html 

After 4 days at Aarohi I visited Jeevanshala, a tiny school in village Maram, 80 km from village Satoli.

There I conducted workshop for class 4 and 5 students.

The theme was the same – tinkering with electronics, making paper circuits and flour-dough art - to learn to think like a scientist.

Ultimately it was all about imagination, creativity and collaboration – Timeless Lifeskills.

What I found most amazing was that the play dough we used was the same I had given to Jeevanshala three years back! Those who have very little truly understand the value of what they have!

After Jeevanshala I visited a government school in village Chanoli at the invitation of their extremely motivated and imaginative teacher, Kalyan Mankoti (in red check shirt), whom I had met last June during a workshop I had conducted for teachers in Almora.

I had a great time interacting with students from classes 6 to 8. I spent the night at Chanoli village and also got to meet some of the parents.

Class 8 girls building a Scribbler Bot.

My final visit was to the Science Centre run by Himwats, a Haldwani-based organization, founded by octogenarian Prof H.D. Bist. Himwats works with seven local government schools in Champawat, Himwats volunteers supplement and complement government school teachers.

Over 4 days I interacted with children from classes 5 to 8 from the seven schools Himwats supports.

With Himwats volunteer teachers and some students. 

I am thrilled to learn that Deepak (extreme left in greyish sweater), a volunteer at Himwats, is taking the Tinkering with Electronics workshop to other schools. He emailed me this photograph.

Here is a brilliant example of Electronic Art created by students under Deepak's guidance.

On the whole the two weeks I spent in the small rural schools in Himalayas was an exhilarating experience. I am very much looking forward to my next visit when I will shift gears and focus on another Mode of Thinking - Thinking Like a Historian! 

Anatomy of the A-ha Moment

The brightly lit bulb in comics depicts a flash of insight, when something incomprehensible suddenly makes sense, the moment you go ‘A-ha, I got it!’ The mental exhilaration you get when you make
a connection between something new and something you already know is called the a-ha moment.

True comprehension is also what makes knowledge actionable.

But why is it that your formal education journey doesn’t have too many of these a-ha moments? And what can you do such that all the panels in the comic strip of your formal education journey are full of brightly lit bulbs? Well, if you deconstruct the a-ha moment, according to educational psychologists, you can follow a path towards deeper comprehension, whatever be the topic of study:

1. First step in the path to deeper comprehension is ‘Building Your Curiosity’ about the topic.
2. Second step is ‘Formulating Probing Questions’ that pique your interest and activate whatever ‘prior knowledge’ you have about the topic.
3. Third step involves looking at the topic of study from ‘Multiple Perspectives’.
4. Fourth step is formulation of ‘Instructive Analogies’ and ‘Synthesis of Knowledge’ that helps update your mental model.
5. Fifth step is ‘Multiple Representations’ to depict your updated mental model.
6. Sixth step is ‘Multiple Performances of Understanding’ to assess comprehension.

Let’s look at these steps a little more closely -

1. Building Your Curiosity

The a-ha odyssey begins with curiosity. Once your curiosity gets fired up, it secures the cognitive commitment needed to undertake a learning adventure. Curiosity arouses your interest. The deeper your interest, the more likely you are to stick with it, despite the frustrations and setbacks that accompany all learning journeys.

2. Formulating Probing Questions

When you formulate compelling questions that you are curious to find answers to, it not only builds your curiosity – thus strengthening your resolve to learn – but also activates whatever ‘prior knowledge’ you have about the topic of study. This is essential because comprehension is nothing but the bridge between what you already know and the new thing you want to learn.

Here, you must be aware of one thing – problems in understanding can happen because your current mental model or the prior knowledge that you have about the topic is flawed. You must be conscious of this and remain mentally flexible to address this issue, if needed.

3. Multiple Perspectives

After you have formulated insightful questions, look at the topic from multiple perspectives. For example, look at a book from both the protagonist’s and the antagonist’s perspective, or consider the life situation of a mathematician when he postulated a new theory instead of just mugging up the final formula he gave. This will give you a deeper appreciation of the larger context and the nuances of the topic of study, which will help in conceptual comprehension.

4. Instructive Analogies & Knowledge Synthesis

Analogies help you go from the known to the unknown. They invoke your prior knowledge about the topic and help build connections from something you know to the new topic. For example, while studying the circulatory system, you can draw an analogy with a cops & bad guys movie, assigning character roles to red and white blood cells, platelets and organs involved. Once you have formulated instructive analogies, you should then synthesise your knowledge by making connections across disciplines. Say, you learn about Venn diagrams in math but instead of making another Venn diagram in the math exam (which you will anyway and all it indicates is your ability to regurgitate), you should create a Venn diagram in English to compare and contrast two books or two authors – how they are similar and how they are different.

5. Multiple Representations

The next step in the journey to deep comprehension involves representing the new knowledge in multiple ways. For example, you could make flowcharts, concept diagrams, or mind maps to represent what you have learnt and understood.

6. Multiple Performances of Understanding

Finally, look for opportunities to demonstrate your understanding, preferably in a real-world context. You could ask yourself how something you have learnt in science can be practically useful in the local environment where you live. If real-world application is not possible, demonstrate your understanding in other ways like participating in discussions and debates, writing a blog, creating podcasts or making animation, videos or apps. Creating an e-portfolio based on what you have learnt not only deepens your understanding of the topic, it also serves as evidence of your comprehension. It can become another form of assessment.

Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner was of the view that nobody in science, especially students, read anymore. They only Xerox things. He once quipped to a student, “Have you tried neuroxing papers? It's a very easy and cheap process. You hold the page in front of your eyes and you let it go through there into the brain. It's much better than Xeroxing.”

Once you understand the anatomy of the a-ha moment you can neurox any form of knowledge!

The Positive Spiral of Education

As an independent educator, I often conduct workshops at schools and this gives me a chance to interact with teachers. Couple that with all the various parent-teacher meetings I have attended as a parent to a 14-year-old, and it means I have observations on the different kinds of teachers that people the education world. I find that they can broadly be classified into three types:

• Maximum Markus: Some who have a very narrow definition of schooling and are ‘grade’ focused – do this and you will get better marks.
• Subjectus Superior: Some who think end game of education is social success only and hence are very ‘exam’ focused (X subject will be a good choice for GCSE/A-level and will help the student get admission into a good college).
• Expecto Passionum: Fortunately, most of my son’s teachers focus on ‘how to build his interest in their subject’.

I say fortunately because in many schools I feel we have created a vicious circle – first we (parents, teachers, society) prioritise ‘learning to earn’, then we work backwards and say this requires ‘admission to a good college’, which in turn means getting 'good grades’ in school and hence we emphasise ‘gaming the system’ to get good grades.

Gaming the system includes doing things like practicing the past 10 year exam papers, learning by rote and regurgitating what you have memorised, without any deep comprehension and in a manner that gets you good grades in exams.

A good school is one that facilitates and empowers students to discover their area of interest and then fosters a life long curiosity and ability to master and shine in that domain. Interest in a domain secures cognitive commitment to stay the course despite setbacks and frustrations and consequent specialisation in a domain leads to the student becoming a musician, dancer, artist, geographer, historian, scientist, mathematician or whatever maestros will be called in future disciplines.

A virtuous circle of education would first foster a ‘yearning to learn’ (against the current emphasis on ‘learning to earn’) and for this a good school should provide,

• A rich learning environment (offer many different disciplines/subjects, clubs, sports and other extra-curricular activities…) so that students can explore and discover their element.
• Teachers should don the role of the guide and mentor, so as to aid students with becoming self-directed and self-determined learners.
• School management should reward such teachers and policy makers should encourage and support such schools.

And we parents should appreciate that focus of schools on cultivating lifelong yearning to learn coupled with making students capable of taking ownership of their learning is what is in the long-term interest of our children. Especially when the rate of change is as fast as it is in the 21st century and children who will succeed in future will be those who can figure out for themselves:

• What is worth learning?
• How will I learn it?
• How will I know I have learnt it well?
• How will I become better at learning new things and keep reinventing myself?

The Promise of Curiosity: A 21st Century Superhero

Long gone are the days when curiosity killed the cat. Meant for a time when asking questions – being curious – was considered undesirable, since you were only supposed to “receive” information being meted out to you in classrooms mostly, today it is curiosity that’ll take the learner a long way. We could revise that proverb to say well, ‘Be curious and you’ll be one cool cat!’

If you think of a 21st century superhero – someone who’s bound to shine in this age – you’ll find curiosity as an essential super power. Mastery over using intelligent machines, empathetic collaboration, ability to thrive in diversity, original thinking, innovative problem solving, judicious decision making and the ability to inspire and lead would be some other traits of the 21st century superhero, but curiosity would be the lynchpin superpower.

Because that’s where it all starts.

Curiosity is the intense desire to know. An innate impulse to fill in that knowledge gap that itches your brain. We’re all born curious. As babies we are diligent investigators examining and making sense of our world using all four limbs and all five senses - sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. As toddlers we are ever exploring and never bored!

Ian Leslie author of Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It, differentiates between ‘diversive’ and ‘epistemic’ curiosity. Diversive curiosity is attraction to novelty. It is an impulsive drive to find quick answers. Think of it as scanning Google search results and skimming the first couple of links to satiate that mental itch. ‘Epistemic’ curiosity on the other hand is a focused, effortful, self-disciplined and conscious exploration for building knowledge and making connections to deepen understanding. Think of it as that initial itch that urges you to find, question, explore, and, if you’re a true seeker, to turn that into a desire that digs deeper.

The 21st century superhero will need both types of curiosity because she has to be a ‘jack of many and master of one’. At IBM they describe this as ‘T’ - the ideal shape of an information age worker. The horizontal line of the ‘T’ depicts the ‘breadth’ of knowledge and the vertical line depicts the ‘depth’ of expertise.

This ‘T’ shape is essential because lucrative future jobs will involve solving non-routine, non-rule-based, complex problems (since routine, rule-based problems that can be reduced to an algorithm will be solved more efficiently by intelligent machines in the near future – for more on this read our earlier article ‘AI Versus Me’ - http://timelesslifeskills.co.uk/?p=4066). Solving such “wicked problems” – problems that are difficult to solve because of complex interdependencies - will require profound expertise in a domain, which in turn will require a deliberate approach to fulfilling the desire to know - the vertical line in the ‘T’. But creativity and innovation happen at the cusp of different domains, usually achieved by bringing together a multidisciplinary team of experts. To be an effective contributor in such teams our superhero will need sufficient knowledge of these other domains to meaningfully engage with experts in different fields. This is the horizontal line in the ‘T’.

Super news for our superhero is that today there is plethora of easily accessible knowledge resources, many available for free, to satiate all types of curiosities. Open Educational Resources (OERs) like MOOCs, talks by experts, Google Scholar, podcasts, websites, blogs, ebooks, apps, serious games and plenty of other resources are available at the tap of a button. Our superhero needs to work on becoming a master curator of these! It’s like curating your own curiosity!

She can also take inspiration from Academy Award winning Hollywood producer and author of the book A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, Brian Grazer, and plan deliberate ‘curiosity conversations’. Grazer, because he was dyslexic and couldn’t read in his early years of elementary school, formed the habit of asking questions to learn. For the last three decades, on average once every two weeks, he has made sure he has hour-long conversations with experts in domains outside movies and television business so that he can broaden his horizon.

Curiosity is not a genetic trait. It is a learned skill that can be cultivated. From a young age, to become a future superhero, our protagonist will need to become an intrepid explorer who boldly goes where no one has gone before! As a student, her curiosity will fuel her learning and, to paraphrase British researcher Sophie von Stumm, her educational success will depend on her hungry mind.

The first step our superhero will need to take in any curiosity adventure will be formulating probing questions answers to which will give her a fresh insight, a new way to connect the dots. Story goes Isidore Rabi, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, when asked how he became a scientist, replied, “My mother made me a scientist without ever knowing it. Every other child would come back from school and be asked, ‘What did you learn in school today?’ But my mother used to say, ‘Izzy, did you ask a good question today?’ That made the difference.”

In formulating insightful questions our superhero could take a cue from Rudyard Kipling who wrote – “I keep six honest serving-men, (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who.”

Being curious, hence, holds a big promise – curiosity is essential for employability and entrepreneurship in the 21st century, curiosity eventually leads to sense making and fulfilling your curiosity is an innately satisfying experience.