Kids are natural scientists. It is this thought that gave birth to Project Mini Science Lab. While kids are born with an ability to explore and discover their surroundings, the burden of the formal and rigid education structure has started to kill the spirit of self – learning in them.

To address this issue and to keep the excitement and ignition of science burning ARCH has designed, developed and implemented Program Mini Science Lab. With more than 15000 students and 500 teachers benefitted to date, this is an on-going project in primary level government aided and corporation run schools. The program is holistically created with 4 strategic areas of outcome:

1. Improving quality of access to education & learning, especially for students from less privileged sections of society. This is achieved by setting up of Mini Science Labs in the school and ensuring that children and teachers routinely use it as a part of their formal curriculum. A log book is maintained on a daily basis to assess its proper usage.

2. Enhancing capacity and skills of teachers to teach science and mathematics in more effective and interesting ways at school. Routine workshops and module based trainings are held to educate the educators to hone teaching skills and exchange ideas to keep the class interactive, engaging and effective. Routine assessments keep a check on the effect of improved skills.

3. The students and teachers are given a platform to exhibit and execute learning through the customized programs. Periodic debates, science fairs and science quizzes are held to keep the learning interesting and eventful. Children get an opportunity to showcase their talent and knowledge acquired in a competitive space.

4. Create partnership and collaboration with various stakeholders for the sustainability of the project. A project management company is established with principals and administrators of different school to manage and review the program. There is a periodic advocacy meeting that works towards smooth planning and implementation of the Mini Science Lab.

Issues addressed – Irregular / low attendance of students/reducing drop-outs,/improving learning level of students/ building confidence and enhancing creativity, imagination and expressions

Big challenge facing Government schools is of low student attendance. In spite of no school fees students are irregular in attending school and the drop-out rate is alarming.

ARCH has developed a unique program called Umang to address this low attendance issue and develop a curriculum to enhance creativity and fun in everyday school. Project Umang has a two-way learning curve where creativity is promoted in the structure of education and vice-versa. The students are given a unique platform to explore the joy of learning. It is held everyday, as part of the formal curriculum of the school, where our educators spend time with children delivering the extensive project module.

With an outreach of over 4000 students belonging to primary schools run by government, Project Umang has been a runaway success. The children are exposed to art and craft where fun activities are integrated with the syllabus of Grade 1 to 8.

Further, they are exposed to performing arts in the form of music, dance and theatre where their self-confidence gets a mighty boost. The focus mainly lies on better presentation skills, expressions and voice modulation that help overcome their stage fear and prepare them for different walks of life.

Spoken English, an important aspect of learning in this program emphasizes on developing conversational skills in the English language.

Concepts of maths and science are promoted through a series of workshops with teachers and students using the methodology of demonstration, construction and presentation. This enhances curiosity and makes difficult concepts easy to understand and use in everyday life.

The focus of this unique program is to introduce the students to waste management and the concept of making the best out of waste. They are oriented to recycle what would normally be tossed into dustbins each week and create awareness about looking at JUNK as a tool for science and innovation.

This new light on exploring waste encourages divergent thinking in children. It’s sheer joy to let them use plastic, buttons, metal objects, wooden pieces, screws etc. in innovative and out-of-the-box experiments and watch interesting outcomes.

This initiative further teaches schools and students to look at resource management while setting up science labs on a small budget. Indeed a fun way to learn!

Students of government schools are generally exposed to rigid education curriculums that focus on subject, limiting knowledge to marks and grades. The opportunity to expose them to extra-curricular skills is often overlooked.

However, the theatre workshops held by ARCH aim to create a nurturing environment for kids from under-served communities who have a love for performing arts.

Our intensive training and coaching help perfect their voice modulation, dance skills and acting ability and pave way for developing self-sufficiency, confidence, and discipline – important life skills that determine the overall success of a child.

Such a workshop can be incorporated as an ongoing and long-term program or as a standalone program of the school. So far 300 students have benefitted from our theatre workshop.

Children are untapped creative powerhouses. The robotics and electronics workshop is designed to channelize their creativity with relevant knowledge enabling them to make DIY projects on different subjects of their interest.

The outcome of this workshop has been very encouraging to say the least as the participants create novel models that lift their own understanding of concepts in science, engineering and technology.

With digital technology paving way for the future such a workshop is an eye opener for students to think of the unthinkable and build on inventions. So far 250 students belonging to government run primary and secondary schools have benefitted from the robotics and electronics workshops.