In an experiential learning project, students of Grade 5 of a city school created an eco-friendly calendar depicting 12 trees of Indian states and union territories and printed on handmade, cloth-based paper.
Students of Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS) worked on creating the calendar that involved research, understanding and exploratory study of flora, connecting different areas of study including Science, Geography, Humanities, English, Art, Design and Mathematics, visited a handmade paper factory, etc for six months.
Speaking about the same, Hemali Choksi, Grade 5 initiator said, "While on the project, they also learnt how to classify plants and understand their parts and functions, earth and its different climate zones, demarcated by latitude lines, lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and the connections between each. They researched the different seasons and how they are caused by the tilt of our earth's axis and how this affects plant growth. In this way, students were able to infer that plants and trees grow in specific climatic as well as atmospheric conditions."
"Since the students wanted to make an eco-friendly calendar, they visited a handmade paper-making factory, where the pulp of leftover cotton and khadi cloth, procured from clothing factories, was used in place of wood pulp for paper-making. Students made their own handmade paper in school to better understand the process observed there", she said.
Each page of the calendar mentions a story about the tree, state it belongs too, its benefits and its story. Students also sketched each tree themselves.
As part of the project, they were exposed to stories, articles and documentary video clips about real-life environmental crusaders such as Miss Rumphius, Wangari Mathai, Jadav Payeng, the Forest Man of India as well as stories about the original Chipko Movement of the Bishnois of Rajasthan in 1730 AD and the Chipko movement of Uttarakhand in 1973.
Speaking about her experience, a grade 5 student Chandni Prajapati said, "The project helped change my understanding about nature - not to waste paper, not to use plastic, save trees, etc. I was surprised to learn that when we burn neem leaves, mosquitoes do not come in our house. According to me, the most interesting thing about our project was the calendar math."
For Alvira Shaikh, grade 5 student, the most interesting thing she learnt was about climate zones and time zones. "The way the project changed my thinking about nature and its importance, is by learning the way nature helps us and learning about the food chain. This project was meaningful and close to my heart because it is something to do with our lives. If there were no trees, we would not survive", she said.
Another student Sharda Goswami learnt sketching, stitching, making charts and many other things that included new trees and their unique information.
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