Kottayam, Nov 5, 2021: Students in Kerala went back to school on November 1 after a long spell of Covid 19 lockdown. Students of Don Bosco School in Puthuppally near Kottayam were in for a surprise and thrilled at what they saw in school.
“Most children may not be able to make the quick shift from home learning to classroom learning, and teachers would find it stressful to manage numerous fidgety and impatient kids in the classroom. Hence, I had to think out of the box to address the issue well in advance and establish a ‘Happy Zone’, for our children,” says principal of Don Bosco Higher Secondary School Salesian Father Tony Cherian.
Thanks to trusted, reliable and globally renowned partners of Don Bosco, Jugend Dritte Welt (JEW) – Austria and International S.T.E.A.M Research (ISR), Father Cherian’s concept is a reality today.
JEW is supporting this initiative financially, while ISR with their S.T.E.A.M Experts are implementing the project within the Happy Zone S.T.E.A.M space, setup at school.
The best way forward is to engage children in hands-on integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) activities with the use of futuristic technologies, as therapeutic education, say educationists.
This system of education will help students gain crucial 21st Century Skills of Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication and Collaboration or the 4Cs as it is commonly known, rather than just rote-learning.
The benefits of such a concept of therapeutic intervention is multiple.
Seeing the amazing result Fr Tony says, “Happy Zones make children to remain curious, excited, and eager to spend quality time engaging in discovering rather than just covering their subject portions in the classroom.”
Teachers have become natural therapists as they engage as facilitators for students in their inquiry-based explorations, discoveries, and innovations, which is the core of Experiential Learning through STEAM Education.
“Technology is a great value addition and it is high time that we empower our teachers to use it in our schools as an augmenting tool within the classroom rather than only for remote teaching” says Fr. Tony.
“ISR S.T.E.A.M activities provide an environment where a learner can touch, feel, and learn by doing through a design thinking process. It promotes invention literacy by making things and relating them to the real world and their textbook topics and experience it with a scientific mentality,” says Dr. George Panicker, Founder & CEO of ISR.
Dr Panicker is convinced that “The exponential technological growth by each passing day is inevitable. The attitude and skill to consistently applying past knowledge and experience to new situations are what the future jobs will demand.”
This new found partnership between JEW, Don Bosco and ISR, which has created the Happy Zone at Don Bosco School, Puthuppally is providing a unique space for students to indulge in experiential learning eliminating the fear of failure and sharpening their metacognitive skills to become future-ready.