ARCH continuously develops creative teaching aids for science and math. In collaboration with other research institutions, we have created science kits for teaching topics such as light, magnetism, electricity, heat, the microscopic world, chemical reactions, the human body, seeds and plants, and mass-volume-specific gravity. We constantly update this material. Many teaching aids for clarifying mathematical concepts such as place value, fractions, tables, geometry, etc. are also used during our academic support programs and our teachers training programs.
Interactive Math and Science Education Each year our education program caters to about 200 children directly, and we reach many more through the training of about 100 teachers annually.
Kits for teaching basic science topics such as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, air, water, and the microscopic world have been prepared. These kits include low-cost materials for teaching science through hands-on experiments. Parents and teachers both can use these to help their children to understand basics of scientific processes. Similarly, with the help of other NGOs, ARCH is developing maths teaching kits. Both kind of learning material has proved very useful for developing interest in science and math.
Using creative teaching methods that supplement the 8th and 9th standard curriculum, ARCH regularly instructs students and gives them one-on-one instruction. Every week 14 students and two teachers from two schools come to our center for learning the fundamentals of science and math. For these regular teaching programs we have built a science lab, where basic concepts such as light, thermodynamics, electricity, chemistry and magnetism can be demonstrated using low-cost instruments. The lab is designed so that about 40-50 students can do the experiments at a time in the presence of our resource team, and, unlike in school, the students themselves do the experiments. After returning to their schools they transmit their learning to other classes with the help of their teachers. The training is over-night, so participants have ample time to discuss their questions about the subjects. Every year we also give a four-days training to 200 students of 7th class from Silvassa Union Territory schools on essential math and science subjects.
Students from our sub-center village schools as well as students from other village schools learn basic math and science concepts through educational camps arranged during vacation. We also employ alternative teaching methods at the ARCH Balwadi, which daily caters to about 70 children of pre-school age. For them we have a toy library, playground with exhibits which remove fear of height, darkness, etc., as well as pre-math and pre-language activities. Children learn many things while playing at Balvadi.