‘Summer Project’ in govt schools helps pupils tinker, innovate

KOLKATA: The School Education department's idea of ‘Summer Project' introduced for the first time this year for students of class V to X in state schools has evoked excellent response and encouraged innovative thinking among students.

Class V students of Sailabala Girls' High School at Bolpur in Birbhum district were taken on a field visit to a park of Santiniketan Medical College and a nearby agriculture land to acquire a practical idea of the use of solar panel, on the basis of which they designed a solar panel model.

The project provided an idea of using such panel in large scale for various household gadgets which contribute a lot for sustainable development.

A school at Baranagar in the outskirts of the city took the students to Clive House –a heritage site, local library, involved them in water conservation, tree plantation, among other things. “The main motto of the summer project was to encourage creativity among the students and make them write or narrate stories on their own. Accordingly, activities were planned,” educator Sandip Banerjee said.

Barisha Janakalyan Vidyapith for Girls in Behala adopted summer project in a slightly different manner by encouraging the students to do certain activities from home that included cooking of rice in different proportion of water and pendown the difference.

The students of a particular class were asked to see the latest Bengali movie “The EkenRuddhaswas Rajasthan” in a movie hall and then follow it up by watching Satyajit Ray directed Sonar Kella (1974) in You Tube or other medium and pen down the changes that they have witnessed in Rajasthan over the years.

Both the movies were extensively sought in Rajasthan and hence the idea. “I felt that this sort of exercise enhance observation power and at the same time encourage critical thinking,” Sharmila Sengupta, headmistress of the school said.

A school located in the border area took students of class IX to a BSF camp and made the students spend a whole day there so that they have an idea of their working style. Some schools took students to sericulture farms for having an idea of the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Visits to banks and post offices for financial literacy or exposure to study of flora and fauna were also part of the summer project in different schools.

“The projects have been conceptualised keeping in mind the school syllabus so that students get a more hands-on approach to concepts and indepth knowledge on subjects,”a senior official of the Education department said.

The School Education department’s idea of ‘Summer Project’ was introduced for the first time this year for students of classes V to X state schools

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