Knowledge Knots
Science through technology has become a way of life by turning into a life force that develops viable careers. Public school education has long stopped being a concern for all. It now exists as a space that accommodates only the have-nots of society. Children in such environments are then viewed with sympathy, and sometimes, well meaning societal forces descend upon such spaces to enrich children with content, to educate them. In this context, science education might be yet again considered valuable and the children see this value in it as well-, to build careers or demonstrate its usefulness by passing it on to others. Practical enabling of knowing is something all are clearly struggling with.
What then is education? What then is knowing? Can turning towards an experiential form bring questions of a new nature to the fore? Will Science turn into imaginative inquiry when one turns to the arts as experience? Will performance, art and craft enable a 'different asking' in children to whom slums are their reality and outer space could be as good as Bollywood fantasy?
Science has often been viewed as knowledge - knowledge that is held and transmitted by certain institutions: research institutions and educational institutions. Schools are centres of transmissions of this kind of knowledge. With this perspective on science communication in schools in mind, we conducted a three day workshop on space and spacecraft in Madivala Government School, a school which has close associations with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, which, in their own language, "adopted" the school on account of it's close proximity.
What then is education? What then is knowing? Can turning towards an experiential form bring questions of a new nature to the fore? Will Science turn into imaginative inquiry when one turns to the arts as experience? Will performance, art and craft enable a 'different asking' in children to whom slums are their reality and outer space could be as good as Bollywood fantasy?
Science has often been viewed as knowledge - knowledge that is held and transmitted by certain institutions: research institutions and educational institutions. Schools are centres of transmissions of this kind of knowledge. With this perspective on science communication in schools in mind, we conducted a three day workshop on space and spacecraft in Madivala Government School, a school which has close associations with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, which, in their own language, "adopted" the school on account of it's close proximity.