CyberFair Project ID: 8417

Close this Window

NOTE: Due to URL changes, some links may no longer be valid.

International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Gyanavardhini
Category: 2. Community Groups and Special Populations
URL: http://cyberfairlsps18.com
Bibliography: http://cyberfairlsps18.com/bibliography-1

School: Lakshmipat Singhania Public School
    Rayagada, N/A - Does Not Apply, India

16 students, ages 11 to 17 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 7, 2018. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): First time participant

Classes and Teachers: Mr Pradipta Kishore , Mr N P Swamy, Ms Lily Bibhar, Mr Manoj Panda and students of class 6,7,8,9 and 11

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.lspublicschooljk.com

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Jaykaypur An industrial township situated amidst plush green ambiance in a valley surrounded by scenic hills in the budding Rayagada district of Odisha in India. Rayagada is one of the remote tribal districts of Odisha which is known for its tribal communities like “Dongaria Kandha”, “Saura” etc. The civilization in and around Rayagada is mainly because of the major industrial establishments like JK Paper Mills - one of the most reputed paper mills of Odisha, Utkal Alumina International- a pioneer Aluminium Industry and IMFA(Indian Metal and Ferro Aloys). This place has a huge importance in terms of cultural and historical aspects as well. Whenever we think of Rayagada the first image that comes to our mind is that of a tribal dance or a tribal woman carrying a pot of water from the natural streams. But the recent past has witnessed significance development in this area because of the industries and business to cater the requirement of the employees in the industries. People from many diverse communities live here. In fact, there are so many diversities that the place may be called a Mini India. Our community is a perfect mixture of tribal societies and sofisticated industries. This intermixing has given rise to something new, something different. A visit to this place will let you fill your mouths with the taste of various delicacies from different parts of India. There is harmony among various religious and social groups and we all together live in peace. This outstanding cooperation makes Jaykaypur the perfect place to live in. Lakshmipat Singhania Public School is one of the best school in the Rayagada district for its quality education blended with an array of extra curricular activities.

2. Summary of Our Project

The main purpose of our project is to make everyone aware that special schools like Nutan Gyanvardhini should be established in various places of the world for the specially able children and inclusive education should be mandatory till secondary level. People often consider them as liability for the country but they can rather prove to be an asset for the country’s social and economic development .Nutan Gyanvardhini is a special school for mentally retired children which was established in the year 2003. Here the students are divided into four categories basing upon their disability that is mild, moderate, severe and profound. 30 mentally challenged children of Rayagada vicinity are enrolled in the school who are taken care by 3 teaching staff, 4 care takers and a physiotherapist. Few students of Gyanvardhini undergo through vocational training in tailoring, candle making, envelope making etc. Before admission of the specially able students tests like CP tests, IQ tests, counseling and case study are taken. In the school students are imparted with basic education, physical exercises followed by lunch and co-curricular activities. At the time of joining students were lacking in activities of daily living skills but now skills like eating, washing hands before and after meals etc have improved remarkably. It is rightly said “Don’t judge our disability with the visibility”. At Gyanvardhini Programs such as national mental health day, annual functions, picnics, cultural programs etc are also organized for the students. They have participated in various competitions at district and state levels in various fields and brought laurels. Being disabled does not mean being disqualified from having access to every aspect of life. The special education system has provided them an effective frame for their education and for institutions involved to identify children with disability.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:1

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Being located in a remote place we are blessed to be supported by the JK Paper mills. JK Paper mills has a dedicated leased line and it is shared by our school too. Otherwise in this area getting a leased line is like day dreaming. Our school has a computer lab with 13 computers out of which 3 are connected to the internet which were used for our project.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Distance between Gyanvardhini and our school made it a little difficult for us to travel there often. Moreover the timing of those students was also Limited and different than our school timing. Hence we needed to squeeze our complete agenda of interviewing and sharing time with them in the stipulated period of time. We could not capture excellent photos and videos because of the unavailability of high quality cameras. Students and teachers there were Cooperative but were not completely prepared for our group as it was quite new and different for them. Communicating with those children was difficult because most of them could only speak local languages and many of them didn't have the ability to speak or listen, Some children were not able to speak clearly. The road connecting Gyanavardhini was under repair so it was full of dust. The major problem that we have faced was our annual examination which was started in mid February and ended on 7 March. So we had very limited time to complete all the required tasks. We are thankful to our teachers and support staff of the school for their kind cooperation to spend time beyond the daily schedule and help us to complete our task. Because we are the first time participants of the cyber fair to get acquainted with the rules and procedures we took time more than usual. Even after 15 days of registration we did not receive the verification link in our inbox. We wrote continuous emails to the cyber fair team but all were in vain. After lot of dilemma and struggle we could locate the verification link mail in the spam folder which made us feel like awarded by the platinum category of cyber fair.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Children with disabilities are like butterflies with a broken wing, they are just as beautiful as all others, but they need help to spread their wings….. Our main reason to do this project is to let people all over the world know about an organization that provides wings to those butterflies who are unable to fly and reach their destination. It’s the endeavour – Nutan Gyan Vardhini which has left no stone unturned to be a pillar of strength for the disabled children. At Nutan Gyanvardhini the students are getting ample opportunity to develop their gross motor skills and fine motor skill by the help of special need instructors and the physiotherapist. Contributing for the specially able children is a godly service which are rendered by the facilitators of Gyanvardhini in a selfless manner.

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Our Cyberfair project addresses the special community of Jk pur locality which comes under the category of “Special population and community groups”. The content standard focuses two major areas. 1. The special population which refers here a group of specially able children who are being taken care by Nutan Gyanvardhini a premiere organization for helping specially able children. 2. Doing research and publishing on a topic Our project emphasizes on the lifestyle of specially able children and preserve the true innocence , love , compassion towards humanity. Our project also aims at uniting all the community members by bringing awareness amongst them and devising various ways of helping them . Students come to school not only for mugging up the subjects for the exam point of view but it is very important to let everybody know that a school is the perfect place to teach and spread moral and ethical values. Text book learning, Moral story books, ethical preaches will not have impact unless they are actively and directly connected with the real world. The theme of our cyberfair project “preserve and unite” through Gyanavardhini gave us a major boost to preserve all moral values of life and let us feel that the specially able children are not different than from us but they are specially crafted by god and we are all equal. We developed totally different attitude towards human community in a positive direction. In today’s world where love ,care and truthfulness is a rare gesture we could confidently put that Gyanavardhini is beyond all vices of society. And we extend the gratitude in loads for that. The traditional methods and learning through internet should go hand in hand as both will influence and improve the quality of learning.

Top
Project Elements

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

? We have used 5 desktops(3 core 2 duo and 2 Pentium i3 processors), 1 laptop(Pentium i3 processor), all students used smart phones for communicating, processing and transferring required information for designing the website. The computers used were from the school computer lab and office. ? 1 television and 1 DVD player belongs to Gyanavardhini are used to play audio and video songs. ? 2 digital still cameras and smart phones belong to school, teachers and students are used to capture and record the images and video. ? Cam scanner is used to scan certain documents. ? MS Office, Photoshop, Mobile apps for collage making, Whatsapp for communication ? School library used to refer JK Paper mill quarterly magazine to collect past publications about Gyanavardhini. ? Dharitri, Orissa Post etc local newspaper for publishing and collecting news articles ? Chart papers, drawing sheets, pen drives, DVD, and other painting stationery etc. ? Paintings, Posters and drawings of the students of Gyanvardhini and cyber fair participants to preserve and unite the values, love, compassion, kindness about the students of Gyanvardhini. ? Oral interview is taken with the Gyanvardhini Principal Mr Bankabihari, SPARSH manager Mr Asutosh, physiotherapist Dr Damodar.

? Our school allowed us to use the computers located in computer lab. ? Vehicles are provided by JK Paper mill and school to commute to the Gyanavardhini which is located about 10 kms far from our school. ? Computers, digital cameras, cell phones are the most valuable tools used by us. ? Microsoft word for documenting and editing and Photoshop for photo editing are the technologies which are most helpful because of their user friendly nature.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

Our students acted as ambassadors and spokesperson to safeguard the dignity of the mentally and physically challenged children and unite them with the society by the following ways 1. Creating a website showcasing the lives of the specially able children to preserve and unite their special abilities 2. Students held discussions on how to take the noble initiative further by spreading its message in the whole world. 3. The students conducted an art exhibition, made posters on specially able children and placed them on our school display board for the parents and students to see, each one spreading the idea. The teaching and non teaching staff of our school also got awareness regarding Gyanavardhini and specially able children. 4. Students had been to Gyanavardhini and met the specially able children and spoke to the head and staff. Our students discussed and suggested them to introduce some more gross motor and fine motor activities which are conducted in our school and will be beneficial for the specially able children. 5. In the two visits that our students had to Gyanavardhini motivated and inspired our students to get involved with the specially able children and work further in the future for their welfare. 6. Students spoke to their parents, friends and relatives about our experience with the specially able students and insisted them to spread this awareness in their society. 7. Students have published news articles in the premier new papers of Odisha like Dharitri, Anupam Bharat, Orissa post etc. which will definitely spread awareness among the people throughout the state. The news reporters of this locality were overwhelmed to publish the articles in their news papers. 8. Parents of our students and teachers of our school contributed money and arranged a mid day meal for the specially able children. Our students also had lunch with them on 19 Feb 2018.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

Our project will surely transform the way people think of specially able children. People often isolate such communities from the main stream of the society. So working in this project has helped us to unite the people from all corners of society to take initiative for the rehabilitation of these children. Our web pages will be a platform to attract people to explore the true potential of these special populations. It will be a great source of learning and realization from the emotional and ethical ground. This work will certainly move those persons who want to do or contribute something for them. Our website will be publicly hosted which will be an open platform for people from any corner of the world to view and share their opinions on the work being done by Gyanavardhini. The making of this project has enabled us to establish new relations of humanity, love and compassion with the specially able children. To an instance on our departure the children were not letting us go and we could leave only after promising them to come back again. This illustrates that those differently able children are no less than the mainstream population. Our website has positively helped those children by generating awareness among people and in turn encouraging them to treat them equally. We hope in the near future many people will join hands with us to take this mission to another level.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

1. We got a great help and advice from our teachers. Without them, it would have been very difficult for us to complete this project successfully. 2. We would also like to thank our school principal and management committee for giving us this golden opportunity to participate in this international competition. 3. The teaching and non teaching staff of Gyanvardhini proved to be great coordinators as they helped us in our interaction with the children. Also, they helped us beyond the school hours. 4. We are also very thankful to Gyanvardhani institution for allowing us to work on this project. 5. Parents too provided assistance in permitting their children to be a part of this and gave valuable suggestions regarding this project whenever required. 6. We also thank SPARSH coordinator Mr. Ashutosh Das for his kind assistance in this venture. 7. Our school and JK Paper limited was kind enough to provide transportation facility to commute to Gyanvardhini. 8. The visiting physiotherapist of Gyanvardhini Dr. Damodar patiently described the physical problems faced by the students and the equipment used to relieve them. Dr. Damodar also paid heed to our queries, answering each question with assurance regarding the care of the students. 9. We are also grateful to our friends for encouraging us along the path. 10. Mr K R Muni and Mr G Gowri the gardeners of our school stayed beyond their timing and extended their help to us.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

The research trip to Gyanvardhini was full of exciting twists and turns. Our expectation was not at all what we received. We thought we would see some differently abled children, talk to the headmasters and teachers to get the relevant information but when we got there, we were amazed to see that the children were very talkative and helped us to get a clear image of Gyanvardhini. We were also surprised to see the discipline of the children throughout our stay there, but the part that left us spellbound was the dance and skit performances by the students. We did think that communicating with them would be a hurdle but they were very comfortable with us, behaved with us as if we are their friends. After this visit to Gyanvardhini, we learnt that the children are very capable and we should never judge them on the basis of their disability. Participating in this international event required us to do a lot of research work regarding the institute, the staff and the students. Research which involved a visit to the institution, interacting with the students, having lunch with them, knowing more about their lifestyle during the school hours, which proved very beneficial to us. This taught us the value of research, and how much fun it can be when it is done for a good cause.

Top

View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 8417)

Close this Window