Educational Camps for Students

Adventure training programmes for students

Outdoor education takes learning out of text books and brings it alive into participants lives. Educational programmes are designed with the syllabus of the attending class in mind and can focus on various aspects of their formal education. It is difficult to describe this, as the syllabus is vast, but I will try and explain how we try and bring in elements from their text books alive and generate an interest beyond the written word, that encourages students to actively pursue learning

Geography

Visiting a dam can lead to a better understanding of rivers and how dams work and the uses they are put to in terms of water storage, generating electricity, water sports, and even social issues like how the back water covers low lying areas and the need for adequate planning and relocation of people at risk, etc.

Standing on a mountain in the Sahyadri and studying the layered structure of the mountain range brings alive the stratified formation from the text books. Basalt rock seen and touched is far clearly understood than verbal descriptions.

Areas like desert, forest can actually be visited, so that their difference and implications are experienced and understood. Farming of a particular region can be experienced easily, as can different methods of irrigation, etc.

History

India abounds in historical places from a variety of eras. Visiting one and seeing it in detail can help bring alive stories from the past. Defending and conquering a fort, and the bravery of one to protect it with his life can be visualised.

Biology

A nature trail gives a prime opportunity to attempt classification and identification of species, understanding ecological interactions, as well as the need to classify and bring some order to the plethora of life around us in an attempt to understand it in managable chunks.

Science

Visiting manufacturing units is seeing science in application. Cloud formations, their differences and their indication of weather, the water cycle... are happening all around to witness and understand better.

A group learning about light can even try a quick project at creating a scratch hologram, and understanding how the "magic" happens.

Civics and social studies

Visiting a small village, seeing the people and understanding the structure of the government there, the various initiatives, their impact on the people, the kinds of needs of the people and how they are addressed, continuing needs and the process to resolve them, the processes and time durations in such initiatives, etc are well and interestingly understood through interactions with the real life people in those situations.

Added benifits

These programmes create an attitude of testing learnings and applying them actively in life. They bring an awareness of how education translates into application in real life. They are vital in bringing home the very practical benifits of education and a motivation and respect for the education system in general.