Session 1 - Imagine

Right from the first draft of the curriculum, we knew that we would want our first sessions to be on 'Self', to understand the students more, and to get an insight into their worldview, the way they approach nature and waste and what their backgrounds might be.

We started the first session with 74 students in the classroom. 5 more students had registered post the event. This is a pretty big number, as you can imagine. To begin, Vishal asked the students to try and guess what he was going to draw on the blackboard, and then proceeded to draw a mythical creature with the body of a duck, the talons of a bird of prey, the snout of a dog and the webbed feet of a frog. The students went wild trying to guess what it was. Some shouted "ALIEN!" very enthusiastically, and, perhaps more interestingly, one student shouted "HUMAN". 




After Vishal finished his masterpiece and labelled the different parts of the creature along with which animals they belonged to, we divided the students into two groups, and directed one group downstairs. The other group was asked to draw and colour mythical creatures of their own imagination, and attribute powers to it based on its body parts, e.g., elephant ears would mean good hearing/ ostrich legs would mean fast running.




While they were at it, the students downstairs were given a short briefing on what we were about to do. Vishal, Tallulah and I introduced ourselves as Doctor Octopus, Man of the Forest (the Konkani translation of which means Slender Lorris) and Black Widow, respectively. Mine was admittedly a little derivative (but I was put on the spot!).

  


We then did a trail through the lush, green backyard of the school, and saw a variety of fungi, mosses, ferns, butterflies, earthworms and millipedes. The students were asked to try and collect a brown leaf different than anything collected by any other student. They showed us all the leaves they found unique, and we headed back to the classroom and exchanged places with the second group. The students kept the leaves gently in their Eco Club journals for us to see next time and started their drawings of mythical creatures.















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