09.03.2018 & 10.03.2018
– Nirmala
On Friday our school students from 3rd to 7th standard went on an education trip to Tanjore Temple for solving their challenges. Each class had a different challenge. For 3rd and 4th std the challenge was “Why is it said that the shadow of the Raja Gopuram in Tanjavur’s Brihadeeshwarar Temple does not fall on the ground?” For 5th std the challenge was “Why is Tanjavur district known as the “Rice Bowl of Tamilnadu?”, 6Th & 7th std students had decided to write an essay about the Brihadeeshwarar temple. On the way to Tanjavur, we went boating at Pitchavaram mangrove forest. There we interacted with the boatman about the mangrove forest and trees.
We also visited Chidambaram Natarajar Temple, Tharasuram Itheeshvarar Temple. When we reached the Brihadeeshwarar temple in Tanjavur, we arranged for a guide to tell us about the temple. Students asked many questions about the temple’s history and how is it constructed? Each student collected information related to their topic. On the way back to school we visited Gangaikonda Chozhapuram. Everywhere students were keenly observing and collecting information. Each student took notes of the places we visited. Some of them worked in group.
Before we started the trip to Tanjore we divided ourselves into 5 groups. Instructions had been given to the students through their group leaders. This helped all the teachers and the students to work on the challenge well.
Teachers were able to observe values in the students like sharing, helping, organising, leadership skill, curiosity and time management. Students cooperated with the teachers well. According to our plan the students have done their part well. For eg: taking responsibility of the team members, organising food and distributing , older children guiding younger kids etc.
The preparation of the trip as a set up of EBD raised interesting questions on culture (once the children saw the shadow of the Gopuram they wondered why such a statement was made), mathematics (how do shadows form, when are they the longest and is it possible for a shadow not to fall on the ground), etc. Further blogs on these.
Isai Ambalam School 