MY WATER WORLD

About the project

The objective of this project was to make students understand the various properties of water and its interconnection with all lifeforms on the planet. Through this project, they understood the vitality of water and the pressing need to conserve it. For a Class I student, learning about a dynamic theme like ‘Water’ was an interesting task. Through project-based learning, this theme was made comprehensible, relatable and enjoyable for the students. The project was interspersed with inter-disciplinary activities, fun elements, expert talks and hands-on tasks.

Driving Question

What are the things considered essential for humans to survive?

Process

The driving question led students to reflect upon the most indispensable things in their lives and eventually led to a unanimous answer – ‘Water’.  This set us on the path of learning, leading us to the various aspects of water. We began with learning about marine life and we discovered the amazing variety of aquatic animals with their unique features. It was realised that not only these animals need water, but even us humans use water in our day to day life for different activities. That led us to brainstorm about the sources of water and understand the process of water cycle. Then it was realised that these water bodies are in grave danger. Thus, we had passionate discussions about water pollution and the urgent need for water conservation. Next, we followed it up with learning about different water transports and engaged in paper folding activity as well. The project was interspersed with different activities which not only gave children hands on experience, but also created awareness, sensitivity and responsibility towards water. They created thought-provoking posters on water pollution, became ‘Water Warriors’ and mind maps on ways to conserve water. They also created origami aquatic animals when learning about their special features. Ensuring that students do not miss upon authentic and hands-on learning experience, experiments based on various properties of water, were conducted in the laboratories and class. Our ‘Young Scientists’ were part of the experiments and noted their observations on temperature of water, sink and float as well as solubility test. A talk was also conducted by an environmentalist from TERI, who underlined the uses and importance of water, causes and types of pollution and conservation.

The theme was integrated with all the subjects across the curriculum, lending to holistic learning. While the content was embedded with lots of pictures and videos to let the children have visual learning, art and craft too was an integral part of theme. Inter-spacing the theme with song and music added fervour in the class. In English, while learning about creative writing, the students created advertisements on their favourite water transport. They found out the names of water animals in Hindi. Such inter- related activities across the curriculum made learning wider and diverse ensuring no dull moments in learning. All the activities, worksheets, responses of the children were used for assessing their progress through the theme.

The driving question led students to reflect upon the most indispensable things in their lives and eventually led to a unanimous answer – ‘Water’.  This set us on the path of learning, leading us to the various aspects of water. We began with learning about marine life and we discovered the amazing variety of aquatic animals with their unique features. It was realised that not only these animals need water, but even us humans use water in our day to day life for different activities. That led us to brainstorm about the sources of water and understand the process of water cycle. Then it was realised that these water bodies are in grave danger. Thus, we had passionate discussions about water pollution and the urgent need for water conservation. Next, we followed it up with learning about different water transports and engaged in paper folding activity as well. The project was interspersed with different activities which not only gave children hands on experience, but also created awareness, sensitivity and responsibility towards water. They created thought-provoking posters on water pollution, became ‘Water Warriors’ and mind maps on ways to conserve water. They also created origami aquatic animals when learning about their special features. Ensuring that students do not miss upon authentic and hands-on learning experience, experiments based on various properties of water, were conducted in the laboratories and class. Our ‘Young Scientists’ were part of the experiments and noted their observations on temperature of water, sink and float as well as solubility test. A talk was also conducted by an environmentalist from TERI, who underlined the uses and importance of water, causes and types of pollution and conservation.

The theme was integrated with all the subjects across the curriculum, lending to holistic learning. While the content was embedded with lots of pictures and videos to let the children have visual learning, art and craft too was an integral part of theme. Inter-spacing the theme with song and music added fervour in the class. In English, while learning about creative writing, the students created advertisements on their favourite water transport. They found out the names of water animals in Hindi. Such inter- related activities across the curriculum made learning wider and diverse ensuring no dull moments in learning. All the activities, worksheets, responses of the children were used for assessing their progress through the theme.

Project Culmination

All the contributions of the children were assimilated and put together in the form of an ‘Interactive Water Museum’. The parents were invited for the unveiling of the museum on the day of culmination. Culmination was not just one-point display of their journey over the course of this project but also a proud moment for the students to savour the success of their handwork and efforts.

Teacher Reflection

In today’s time, the theme of water is relevant and important. It is very wide topic and entails lots of relevant and important information. Creating an awareness about water, its scarcity and its conservation is a very important issue. Children are so much more observant and concerned about environment than we think them to be. It was evident from the way they contributed during the discussions and attempted each activity making an extra effort of performing the tasks to perfection.

Creating scientific thinking, building reasoning skills, developing a rationale and being sensitive, towards environment is the basic intent of Environmental Studies.

This PBL on water was a great learning platform which created a life-long learning and children surely benefitted from it. I believe that with this project, the awareness about our natural resource, seed to conserve water and understand its vitality has been sown. I am sure that these children will become much more water-wise, thereby, working towards the betterment of our planet Earth in the future.