Eight hundred children can claim ownership along with their nine social studies teachers who authored the book, A-Hunt . The book brought out by the department of social studies of Adhyapana School, affiliated to the CBSE, contains questions on the 28 States of India. “It is an effort,” says Rincy Jose, head of the department, “to answer certain basic and some unknown facts about our country which not only the students but even parents and teachers may not know.”
The common perception is that most children dislike history, civics and geography. “We wanted to create an interest in the subject, involve the children and make them realise that studying social studies also offers them multiple career options,” says Rincy.
The massive exercise was launched in July last year and involved students of Classes V to X. The Indian States were divided among the classes and each student was asked to contribute 10 questions. They could hunt for information from their text books, the library and the net.
In the next stage, students were assigned the job of sorting the questions under different heads. Stage three was most time consuming when the social studies teachers took over. They first listed out 10 common and 40 uncommon questions for every State and read multiple books to check the veracity of the answers as well.
“The last three months were hectic,” says Karuna Krishnan, “as we spent extra hours in school researching, collecting and compiling all the data, photographs and information.” “It was a huge learning process for us too,” adds Vimala.
“The joy of teaching should not fade with just academics,” says Rincy, and gives credit to senior principal Aruna M.Visvessvar, who immediately gave the go ahead for the GK book and continuously encouraged the team.
“Children can be taught many things,” says Rincy, “but when their classroom activity goes beyond lectures and tests and engages them in creative contribution, it leads to improvement of education.”
The book was released last November and distributed free to every student from LKG to class XII. The book will gain importance this academic season as it has been declared as a storehouse of clues for the school’s annual event – “Kaun Banega Adhyapana Star”, on the lines of the popular “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. This event will be part of the Social Studies Week celebrations this October.
“We are constantly thinking about preparing our children for the future,” says Karuna. From the feedback they have received so far, the team is confident that more students will now discover a new love for social studies.
The book is a tonic to the brains as it is packed with general knowledge questions on history, geography, literature, art and culture and will work as a handy tool in preparing for quiz competitions or even in writing competitive exams. The teachers feel the book will also help the students abandon the safety of rote learning, make them proficient in framing questions and generate a curiosity about unusual answers. Spread over more than 100 pages, with 1,130 questions and answers, the book will enlighten the readers on India.
“We feel happy that we have been able to do something different for our students and the school,” beams Rincy. The staff is keen on sharing the book with other schools as well and we have already received enquiries. It will help everybody to learn a little more about India,” says Rincy. The next project she says will be on the Rivers of India.
