Exploring City Museums with Students of Lotus Valley International School, Gurgaon

On August 4, 2018, grade four and six students from Lotus Valley International School, Gurgaon were invited to participate in Flow City School Project. The Project is designed to introduce city students to Delhi’s museums and cultural sites. The experiences are sensitively curated and designed to align with curricular and extra-curricular needs of each grade (we work with grades 1–8). Rich cultural ecosystems that enable, extend and enhance in-classroom learning are chosen to springboard Flow’s Engaged Cultural Learning, a methodology that aims to spark curiosity, critical thinking, creativity and imbue spirit of collaboration among young learners. We took grade four to Sulabh International Museum of Toilets and six to National Museum, Delhi.

Water, Water Everywhere, Not a Drop to Be Wasted!

Young learners understand the essence of a well planned sewage system

At Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, Flow facilitators used demonstrations, games, art-making and slogan writing exercises to introduce fourth graders to a variety of themes around water recycling and conservation. The themes included different kinds of pollution, need to conserve and recycle water, the merit in developing a good sewage system and, every child’s favourite, unique toilet seats from around the world.

Toilet seats as artefacts

Can you think of a slogan that will make your neighbour not waste water in their houses anymore?

While designing their unique toilet seats, young learners process the threat to clean drinking water world wide

Mysteries of Cities and Civilization

At National Museum, Delhi, Flow facilitators explored the Harappan, Ancient Antiquities and Coin galleries to introduce sixth graders to objects, ideas and ethos that make and break civilizations. The gallery experiences were further complimented with an in-depth discussion on what the word civilization has meant to greatest thought leaders of the world. These discussions coupled with art and task-based engagement with gallery exhibits allowed learners to not only question the ideas they downloaded from books and lectures but also question some of the tenets and practices that they see around them.

Look closely, write, draw, speak!

Row, row, row your boat gently down the gallery

How do you mint a coin?

How do we look at an object? How do you read the object?

I learn when I see

What is a civilization?

Learners shared with Flow team their thoughts and ideas, some lingered after experiences to ask more questions, articulate their trouble with notions that they do not see value in. As such, a wide range of topical concerns around caste, class and gender came to the forefront. Their anxious questions gave us a sense of how engaged strategies for learning can activate a young person’s desire to not only know more but also interpret the information using yardsticks that are more nuanced in understanding plural cultural spaces.