Dr. Aniruddha Malpani What an inspiring book - please read this ! Moving Mountains – The Story of Agastya’s Ethical and Frugal Growth Moving Mountains is an inspiring story that tells the remarkable journey of the Agastya International Foundation, an unique educational organization that has transformed learning for disadvantaged children in India. The title is a clever reference to the legendary Indian sage Agastya, who humbled the mighty Vindhya mountains through wisdom and purpose — a fitting metaphor for the seemingly insurmountable challenges Agastya Foundation faced in its mission to revolutionize education. At the heart of Agastya’s journey lies a profound sense of purpose — the unwavering commitment to making high-quality education accessible to underserved children. The founders believed that India's future could only be shaped by igniting curiosity and creativity in young minds, especially those in rural areas. This powerful sense of purpose drove them to challenge traditional educational methods and introduce experiential, hands-on learning to children who had limited access to quality resources. The book emphasizes how this clarity of purpose became a guiding force, helping the organization stay focused despite financial constraints, bureaucratic hurdles, and logistical challenges . Mission-Driven Innovation Rather than replicating conventional school models, Agastya innovated with unique learning methods — mobile science labs, interactive workshops, and creative learning spaces. By challenging the assumption that education must be expensive or resource-heavy, Agastya demonstrated how frugality can fuel creativity and drive impact. The Moving Of Mountains The book vividly illustrates how Agastya's success was not built on vast financial resources but rather on innovative thinking, resource optimization, and an unwavering commitment to its mission. Culture of Integrity and Frugality A standout theme in the book is Agastya’s emphasis on building an ethical and frugal culture. The organization resisted the temptation to chase flashy solutions or unsustainable expansion. Instead, they focused on maximizing the impact of every rupee spent. By cultivating a culture of responsibility and accountability, Agastya ensured that its growth remained sustainable and aligned with its core values. The book highlights how this culture of simplicity fostered trust within the organization and earned respect from donors, educators, and community members alike. Employees were encouraged to innovate within constraints, turning limitations into opportunities for creative problem-solving. Teamwork and Collective Vision The Agastya story is also a testament to the power of teamwork. The organization attracted a diverse group of passionate individuals — scientists, educators, and volunteers — who shared the belief that learning should be joyful and accessible. The book reveals how Agastya’s collaborative environment encouraged individuals to contribute ideas freely, building a dynamic and flexible organizational structure. Agastya's leaders empowered their team members, allowing them to take ownership of projects and drive impactful change. This decentralized approach ensured that innovation flourished at every level of the organization. A Mind-Boggling Vision Perhaps the most striking element of Agastya’s journey is the sheer audacity of its vision. Setting out to impact millions of underserved children in rural India with experiential learning seemed like an impossible task. Yet, through resilience and ingenuity, Agastya steadily expanded its reach, touching countless lives. The book captures this seemingly impossible journey in rich detail, showcasing how Agastya defied conventional wisdom to achieve what many believed was unattainable. https://amzn.in/d/bkdhT5J

This is a transcript of the podcast Learning From The Mavericks: Sardar Vallabhai Patel by Ramji Raghavan Nearly a century ago, on Saturday, 23rd July 1927, it began raining heavily in Gujarat in India. Private and public offices had closed for the weekend. People hoped that the rain would stop or subside by Sunday evening. The 52-year-old president of the Ahmedabad Municipality was uneasy and restless. He couldn’t sleep. Way past midnight, he decided to do a round of the city. Walking alone on Gandhi Road in the dark, menacing night and pouring rain, he came to the conclusion that Gujarat was heading towards calamity. He knocked on the door of his friend, Harilal Kapadia, who was shocked to see his friend drenched. He ushered him in, gave him a hot cup of tea, and persuaded him to change into a fresh set of clothes. The men set out street by street, first-hand knowledge of the situation. They woke up the municipal engineer and formed a team at the municipal office. By daybreak, they had made arrangements for the drainage of the rainwater that had accumulated in the low-lying areas of the city. Over the course of the next few days, Gujarat experienced unprecedented rainfall. Rainfall like it hadn’t seen in the past 50 years. Kheda District alone had 100 inches of rainfall. Thousands of villages were marooned or destroyed. People had to live on treetops for survival, without food or water for four to five days at a stretch. Older people and children would often fall off the treetops into the raging current from exhaustion. In the midst of a seemingly insurmountable crisis, the president of the municipality had gathered over 2000 volunteers who went from village to village, sometimes risking their lives, swimming across deep waters, providing vital help to starving villagers marooned in their homes. Working round the clock, they provided food grains and clothes at low prices, distributed seeds to plant after the rainwater receded to revive agriculture, and rebuilt 72000 houses. It was a tremendous and stupendous example of leadership on the edge by the president of the municipality, who won great praise from not only his colleagues and friends but also from the government, which was persuaded to release 13 million rupees, a large sum of money then, for the relief efforts. Two decades later, Jane Mooney went to see the former president of the Ahmedabad municipality, and said, “ You’ve led a great and interesting life. Why don’t you write a book about it?,” and Sardar Patel, now independent India’s first Deputy Prime Minister, who along with Gandhi and Nehru had led India to her independence smiled and said, “We do not write history. We make history.” These words so inspired me that when we produced the first brochure for Agastya Foundation in the early 2000s — a lovely blue brochure with an orange A on its cover — the back cover carried the Sardar’s quote: We do not write history. We make history. People call Patel Sardar, or chief, and India’s Iron Man. Patel had made a stupendous commitment to serve his country, to help it win its independence from a great power. Julius Caesar famously said of his great rival Pompeii, “Pompeii has merely done something. I stand for something.” Patel stood for his people and their independence from colonial rule. As Patel said, “our delight is in doing service to people.” Patel had a genius for detail. He got information from on the front lines and often from walking on the streets and villages. This helped him build his intuition, his feeling for a situation. He could see something at the smallest level and imagine what it might become, and take actions to preempt a problem or seize an opportunity. Patel had a tremendous bias for action, for hands-on immersive engagement backed by immense will, which he brought to play again and again, in times of uncertainty and crisis. Like, during the Gujarat Floods, he always set a great personal example. As the Deputy Prime Minister of India, he acted decisively with an iron will to politically integrate the princely states into the federation. Patel had a great ability to bring people together as a unified team. He once said, If you can give me only a hundred true men who will fight until death, I assure that success is certain. In his biography title Sardar Vallabhai Patel, India’s Iron Man, author B Krishna writes that Patel had the unique ability “to make his people exude courage, hope and buoyancy. An ability in great demand at every level, everywhere in today’s Covid 19 Crisis. He had extraordinary persuasive skills which he demonstrated on numerous occasions, as well as in his pivotal role in managing the Gujarat Floods. In his eulogy, delivered after Patel’s death by GS Bajpai, the Secretary-General of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, paid tribute to “a great patriot, a great administrator and a great man.” A rare combination of qualities in any historic epoch in any country. We do not write history, we make history. Great and inspiring words from a great man. Listen to this episode of the podcast Learning From The Mavericks here: https://youtu.be/nzjPt-8oFCg

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Was A Great Social Investor by Ramji Raghavan   I have known stock market billionaire and social investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala for two decades as a friend, adviser, supporter and trustee of the Agastya International Foundation in its mission to spark and spread curiosity and creativity among underserved and underprivileged children in India. Less well known than Rakesh’s widely recognized prowess in investing, was his desire to make a positive social difference to India. He saw this as essential to India’s economic success, and was willing to invest a great deal of time and money in her social and educational development. My first meeting with Rakesh happened in the early 2000s with investment banker Pankaj Talwar, in Rakesh’s office opposite the Bombay Stock Exchange. I described to Rakesh my motivation to quit my job as a banker in London, and return to India with a vision to spark curiosity and nurture creativity among India’s children and teachers. He listened patiently, gaining the measure of me, and quoting more than once from the book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma, “a book about a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life, and the subsequent wisdom that he gains on a life-changing odyssey that enables him to create a life of passion, purpose and peace.” In our second meeting, Rakesh said he was intrigued with my idea of the Mobile Science Van for children and would sponsor one van. I was thrilled. Later, he said he would sponsor three mobile science vans and “that was that.” Reading my mind, he said that he could visualize hundreds of science vans crisscrossing India, a giant-sized project that only the government could fund. Not to be discouraged, I showed him a map for a dream creative campus in Andhra Pradesh in a village two hours by road from Bangalore. With an exasperated air he said, “Every time we meet, you come up with something new!” Then, one evening, Pankaj and I were walking out of the Hotel Marine Plaza in Mumbai’s Marine Drive, when we saw a silver Mercedes pull up, from which emerged Rakesh. Surprised to see me, he asked me what I was doing in Mumbai and why I had not called him. I said that if I called him, he would think I was after his money! With a laugh and a wave, he invited me to his Nariman Point office the following day. “What’s new?” he asked. I replied that I was returning from a visit to The Exploratorium in San Francisco and would like to create one for rural kids on the upcoming Agastya campus. He listened intently and nodded as I described the uniqueness and benefits of the project that would offer village kids and teachers an opportunity to engage with large interactive, hands-on learning models and exhibits to stoke their curiosity and creativity. Staring all the while at several whizzing stock market ticker screens on his desk, he turned around and asked me to come back to him with a plan. A few weeks later he agreed to fund the first stage of what was to become the Jhunjhunwala Discovery Centre, Agastya’s first significant creative learning investment on campus. A year or two passed until one day, as I was escorting London-based investment banker Alok Oberoi on a tour of the still nascent 172-acre Agastya campus, we stopped at a vista, facing a picturesque lake, to observe the construction of the Jhujhunwala Discovery Centre. Alok’s phone rang. It was Rakesh. Rakesh asked Alok where he was and seemed surprised when Alok replied he was standing outside the upcoming and rather magnificent looking Jhunjhunwala Discovery Centre. The same evening, Rakesh said to me on the phone that he didn’t believe Agastya could achieve its vision through piecemeal funding. “Why don’t you come up with a long-term plan, which I might be willing to fund?” These were indeed super glad tidings for a struggling social entrepreneur! Over several months, working with ex-BCG consultant Manish Gupta from Rakesh’s office my colleagues Mahavir, Bala and I came up with a ten-year plan to raise INR 90 crores to impact six million underprivileged children. I vividly recall what would become a watershed meeting with Rakesh. He mentioned that he could think of few, if any, individuals in India who would give INR 9 crores a year (roughly USD 2 million then) to a charitable education foundation that they did not own or control. Somewhat deflated, I offered to sell my house in Bangalore and give him the money I raised to manage, and suggested I would write a check every year to Agastya from the returns that he would generate. “Please don’t insult me” he said. “Why would I ask you to come to my office only to have you sell your house?” and added “It is not easy to make money” (“Paisa banana utna aasaan nahin hai”). As I continued making the case for the plan, he stopped me and, to my unbelieving delight, said he would give Agastya INR 50 crore (USD 12 million then) over ten years. He explained his reasoning. “I believe in your vision, which means I must go in whole hog to make sure you achieve it. Use my money as you see fit, leverage it to attract other funders to scale Agastya.” He asked me if I was happy. I said yes! and we shook hands. Six million underprivileged kids would benefit from his decision. It was as simple and profound as that. Shortly afterwards on a visit to the barren and imposing Agastya campus, we escorted Rakesh, Titan CEO Bhaskar Bhat, Manish Gupta of RARE Enterprises and others up a hill to see an Agastya hands-on science session in action. Rakesh spotted a small village lad with unkempt hair, in an untucked shirt with snot running down his nose and remarked "I can see in his eyes that you have lit his curiosity!"  Rakesh once told me that the reason for his success was that his father had encouraged him to be curious as a child, and that Agastya, being curiosity-driven, was one of the best social investments he had ever made. Indeed, we had honored his father's memory with a bust at the Jhunjhunwala Discovery Centre, which he had agreed to unveil. Alas. But more on the man's legacy. A measure of Rakesh's x-ray vision, and capacity to take big bets, was his willingness to invest in Agastya’s idealistic vision in the early 2000s when hardly anyone showed interest. Indeed, as a social entrepreneur with an ambitious, if quixotic, vision I felt that Rakesh had almost got into my brain and seen the future as I saw it. He had this vicarious ability to see what others saw (or didn’t see) and the smarts to decide if he wanted to be a part of their vision. As with his business investments, ‘the crusade and the crusader’ were two indispensable conditions that needed to meet his approval before he made his social investments. In October 2019, Rakesh, his wife Rekha and their sons, Aryavir and Aryaman, participated in the first Agastya Innovation Fair in Mumbai. Rakesh spent several hours in the oppressive heat, quizzing the Agastya instructors and watching his sons and other students from Mumbai’s municipal schools engage with the innovative models and projects on display. He looked at me through the throng of exuberant young visitors and with his fingers gave an “O” sign of approval. As a board member of Agastya, Rakesh always spoke about “our vision for Agastya.” He lived and breathed it as much as anyone else in Agastya did but never interfered in Agastya’s work. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, and I trust you and your team to deliver” he told me. Rakesh brought foresight, insights, focus and optimism and constantly encouraged us to strive to do better. “Be ambitious and be patient” he would tell me. At an interaction meeting with social investors and NGOs arranged by the Edelgive Foundation in Mumbai, I remarked that Rakesh’s early investment in Agastya “was unprecedented in scale for that time.” He replied “and what Agastya has achieved is unprecedented.” Desh Deshpande told me recently that of the few million NGOs in the US and India there were about thirty that were doing great work at scale and Agastya was among them. Rakesh’s investment in Agastya – and that of the other individuals and institutions that followed him - were key and instrumental in enabling Agastya to unlock the creative potential of 17 million children and 300,000 teachers nationwide, and inspire educators, scientists and innovators from across the globe. The once barren Agastya campus has become a biodiverse ecological preserve and world class center for creative experiential learning. That was the stupendous scale and intensity of the impact that Rakesh, and the many partners who joined forces with Agastya after him, had! I met Rakesh on July 28, 2022 and was impressed as usual by his clear thinking, vision, and remarkable ability to connect the dots. He quizzed me about my recent fundraising visit to the US. When I told him about the name Indians were making in the world in mathematics, he charmingly showed me a marvelously appropriate video song on his cellphone from the movie Purab Aur Paschim ("Jab Zero Diya Mere Bharat Ne..."). I thought, "This man is a patriot to the hilt!" Alas, his life was to end so prematurely. Emerging from Covid, we articulated an ambitious Agastya 2.0 vision to impact 100 million children and 1 million teachers. Inspired by Rakesh''s turbocharged life, his unwavering support, and the support of Agastya’s partners, the Agastya Team is determined to make our distinctive and creative dream for India’s children and teachers, come true. To quote an African proverb, "It is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep." In his short and remarkably impactful life, Rakesh lived and roared like a lion. Agastya and I will greatly miss his presence, friendship and counsel.

Written by Amna Majeed Roald Dahl’s Matilda (1988) is a canonical book that is read widely across the world by all age groups. The book follows the story of a young girl who is born with supernatural powers but is neglected and misunderstood by her family. In the initial years of her life, she yearns for friends and companionship but remains forlorn. It is during this time that Matilda finds solace, comfort and extreme intellectual stimulation in books. She reads widely and exhaustively, reading scholars such as Herman Melville and Charles Dickens, and even as a toddler travels to the library daily to issue books and magazines. What do books mean to children? What purpose do they serve? How is that purpose different from the reason that adults read books? What is the significance of reading during childhood? The eminent American poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou said, “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him”. Reading is truly an irreplaceable habit for children and becomes a turning point in one’s life. It inculcates the practice of introspection, individual thinking and of understanding and grasping the world personally, slowly and intimately. Mana Nestham: A Mobile Library During the pandemic and the recurrent lockdowns, Agastya devised several ways to tackle the sudden loss in learning opportunities. We launched the WeLearn application on Google Playstore in seven languages and also launched the ActiLearn book in order to encourage self-reliance and learning in students. As things moved towards digital education and distance learning, we tried to keep up with the times. We also preserved and re-instituted the more organic forms of learning and erudition. We invested in the initiative “Mana Nestham” (a Telugu word that translates to “Our Friend”)with an aim to provide free access to books. Mana Nestham operated outside of the Kuppam campus in Andhra Pradesh, and functioned as an outreach program. It conducted a 45-day extensive pilot study that reached 67 different schools, of which 56 were primary schools. Through concerted and dedicated efforts of our instructors, we could reach 6115 exposures¹. Mana Nestham focused on reading practices, story writing, origami, and kirigami, Word games, Read and Share and many more engaging activities. With the ubiquity of digital technology, the form, content, and style of reading books have changed drastically in the past decade. Through initiatives such as Mana Nestham, Agastya is attempting to preserve more focused and established practices of reading, writing, and collective thinking. The astrophysicist and science communicator Carl Sagan once said, “one of the greatest gifts adults can give, to their offspring and to their society, is to read to children”. The companionship one finds in a book is rare and irreplaceable and allows for contemplation and self-analysis. These are values that Agastya constantly attempts to inculcate as well. Our broader aim, that of instilling the ethic of “ Aah! Aha! Haha! ” in our students, is reflected in Mana Nestham as well. Through a mobile library, as we introduced children to books in their routine, we develop novel pedagogical styles and modes of rumination. Preserving Reading As children are now learning and growing up in an environment where digital modes of education are becoming increasingly prevalent, we must introspect on what practices we may have left behind and how and in what ways they applied to our lives and our education. The diverse and heterogeneous purposes that books serve, the solace they provide in tough times, and the unimaginable source of introspective thought that they are- all these form critical reasons to preserve both individual and collective reading practices. Through mobile libraries and constant efforts to read for our students and also with our students, we are trying to conserve reading as a holistic and central practice in our pedagogical endeavors. Exposure is used to measure Agastya’s reach. It can be defined as the number of times Agastya has face-to-face interactions with an individual (child/teacher/community member). Each exposure is 2–3 hours in duration.

Will We Use Technology In The Classroom Or Technology As The Classroom? Written by Nethra Singhi Teaching methods constantly adapt to changing technology and social environments. Thus, in tune with the pandemic halting and uprooting traditional schooling, the current buzzwords related to teaching methods are online learning and virtual education. The pedagogical implications of virtual classrooms versus classrooms with virtual applications are now an ongoing discussion in academia. This article examines the benefits and drawbacks of using technology in the classroom (i.e. combining physical and digital learning) compared to using technology as a classroom (i.e. virtual classrooms). Technology in the Classroom In the last decade, the use of technology in the Indian education space has rapidly amplified, with digital learning tools (like computers and tablets) and online modules. Mobile learning apps are being used alongside textbooks and virtual discussion rooms to follow up in case of doubts. This method of ‘phygital learning’ has gained popularity, where both physical and digital mediums are used for maximum emphasis on learning. (Agastya has been using this method for a long time. To learn more, see Agastya’s TechLaTab initiative .) Is Blended Learning the Way Forward? Popularly called ‘blended learning,’ this combination of online learning with school-based learning has many advantages. Using the internet in classrooms expands course offerings and learning materials since teachers can link outside resources supporting the topic being covered. They can also use multimedia formats to accommodate auditory, visual, hands-on, and other types of learners. Students using a tablet in the lab. Technology also helps teachers and students connect outside the classroom to clear doubts and personalise learning. Teachers can also reach out personally to struggling students and provide more personalised teaching than a traditional classroom allows. The blended learning strategy can accommodate students’ diverse learning styles, as it helps students learn at their own pace. It enables them to work before or after school in ways not possible with full-time conventional classroom instruction. However, before teachers can look at incorporating online resources, all their students must be able to access the online learning environment. Lack of access, whether for economic or logistic reasons, excludes otherwise eligible students from the course, especially in rural and lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods. The other disadvantage of introducing technology in a classroom is that it increases the instructors’ workload. They have to design modules for offline as well as online mediums and flesh out activities suitable in each space, which requires more time and input. Technology as the Classroom With the pandemic, classrooms have been forced to fully digital spaces, with Zoom meetings and breakout rooms serving as primary learning spaces. This, although being a rushed process, has now become a hot topic whose utilisation and impact needs to be examined. Students using the myagastys.education platform. How Effective is Virtual Learning? The most significant advantage of online learning is that it can be Anywhere, anytime, and at any pace. The online format allows a dynamic interaction between the instructor and students and among the students themselves. Ideas are shared. Each individual can contribute to the course discussions with much more forethought instead of immediately answering like in a conventional classroom discussion. The synergy in the student-centred virtual classroom is its most vital trait and advantage over the traditional classroom. As discussed before, it also allows much greater access to information, with resources from all around the world. The other advantage is that children are more prepared to face the world that is rapidly becoming increasingly reliant on technology. They have a good foundation in understanding standard technological devices and their applications. Technology also allows for more active teaching and learning. This is because engagement can be increased through immediate polls and quizzes, and teachers can also receive immediate feedback and track their students’ progress. However, similar to blended learning, a significant disadvantage of entirely virtual learning is the access to the internet and a laptop or tablet. While phygital learning can provide learning opportunities for students who cannot afford or are not exposed to digital technology, they are severely disadvantaged in access to instruction and participation. The other requirement is that both the students and teachers must be digitally literate enough to take advantage of virtual learning fully. If there is no access, there is little hope for digital literacy, and in turn, digital learning. Moreover, if the instructor is not equipped to teach in a virtual environment, it disrupts the learning process. Virtual learning is also dependent on the student’s maturity and ability to self-regulate their time and self-discipline to utilise these tools entirely. There is a greater responsibility on their part, compared to the conventional classroom where the teachers play a greater role than students. Thus, online learning is not for younger students (like elementary, primary or secondary schools) who have not developed these qualities and are not ready for assuming the responsibility that non-traditional learning requires them to shoulder. Tangentially, the younger students also require more hands-on learning, which is quite challenging to impart or monitor via virtual lessons. This is also true for subjects for older students, like science experiments, public speaking, and sports. Many aspects of such subjects are best learnt face-to-face, in a traditional learning environment. Although, the most feared aspect of online learning is children not being prepared for social interactions. Studies have suggested that more individuals throughout society are becoming disconnected and isolated because of technology’s links through social networks. Young children who spend more time engaging with devices may not spend as much time interacting with their peers. This can affect their social and emotional growth. Implications As can be seen, technology in the classroom might be more effective than being wholly dependent on technology as a classroom. It allows for maximum flexibility and accommodation of learning styles while providing a relatively more equitable environment for students who may not necessarily have access to the tools required for proper online learning. Ultimately though,​​ technology is just a piece of hardware or software that is merely a tool to help the teacher deliver the lesson. The teacher’s skill in presenting and connecting content material to their individual students is imperative for the best learning experience.

Written by Nethra Singhi There has always been a lot of discussion about learning processes and the limitations of traditional lecture formats in incorporating different learning styles and holding a student’s attention, especially now, in online learning. Hence, many schools are trying to incorporate active learning into their teaching methods. Let’s explore what that means and its impact. What is Active Learning? Active learning is a teaching method that focuses on learner participation in the learning process rather than solely relying on the teacher. In other words, the students actively learn instead of taking in information passively. It is based on the Constructivist theory, which states that “learning is a process of making meaning”; i.e. learners build on their existing knowledge to delve deeper into any subject. How does Active Learning benefit learners? Many studies have found that in students of all classes, those who are exposed to active learning perform better in evaluation than those who have undergone conventional learning through lectures. This is because students can draw from their understanding of the subject rather than just recalling knowledge. Since they participate in learning activities, they have first-hand experience drawing conclusions, enabling them to apply their knowledge, improving their understanding of the subject, and problem-solving and analytical skills. Active learning engages children whose attention span is limited by involving them in hands-on activities in preschool. Even though they can’t articulate it yet, using hands and moving during learning helps them actualise a concept. For instance, using blocks to form shapes helps them learn the shapes even if they can’t name them yet. It helps them visualise spaces in figures and internalise geometric concepts. Learning by doing also helps engage different neural networks vital for problem-solving. A study has found that “Doing gesture promotes learning a mental transformation task better than seeing gesture for preschoolers.” In higher education, active learning helps students take charge of their education, allowing them to exercise self-discipline and self-regulation. It also helps them explore learning styles best suited to them by offering different activities that help them understand a subject in different ways. It also helps students stay focused on the material by encouraging enthusiasm and class participation. Since this method is not about the content but the learning approach and the process of absorbing the content, it helps the students form their approach towards understanding, visualising and grasping concepts that they can apply even later in life after school and college. It helps them become “lifelong learners”, as described in the Cambridge Guide to active learning. Concerns about Active Learning The primary concern most people have about active learning is that it may diminish the role of the teacher. However, this is an unfounded concern since this teaching method actively requires teachers to devise, conduct and oversee learning activities and guide students throughout the process. Moreover, not all concepts can be taught via actions and are best taught via lectures. The other, more valid concern is that devising activities will increase the instructors’ workload. But there are a lot of frameworks and activities available from reputed schools and colleges. Moreover, the school can provide resources to help ease the burden on teachers. How can we incorporate Active Learning in the classroom? The most vital thing to keep in mind while incorporating activities in teaching is to keep the students at the centre of the process. Often, instructors tend to get lost in the specifics of an activity rather than evaluating what concepts it’s helping students understand. Cambridge and Harvard have complete guides to active learning available on their website, as do many other reputed schools and colleges. Agastya also has multiple tools available for teachers to help them get started with our active learning philosophy, the ‘Aah, Aha, Ha-Ha’ method. The Acharya Initiative, our teacher training program , provides kits for the same. The ActiLearn book also incorporates activities consistent with the NCERT and NPT syllabus and the National Education Policy 2020. Overall, active learning is beneficial in education and should be incorporated wherever possible. It is more effective than rote learning and provides a better educational experience. This is needed now more than ever, where merely holding lectures in an online environment is not enough to keep a child’s attention or even help them grasp the subject matter.

Written by Nethra Singhi Educators, especially in India, have long considered arts to be less important than science subjects. Until a few years ago, the buzzword in education was STEM: A learning approach that combines Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to provide a rounded education focused on the above subjects complementing each other. ​​It emphasises the application of information, and growing problem-solving, observational, and exploratory skills rather than rote learning the periodic table or the multiplication tables. But there is now much discussion about integrating arts with scientific disciplines and the benefits of doing so. Let’s look at one such approach. The progression from STEM to STEAM Education Today, many people add the ‘A’ for Arts in STEM, making it STEAM Education. Georgette Yakman, a researcher and the founder of STEAM Education, divides arts into sub-categories, briefly summarised as follows: Fine Arts — Fine Arts includes drawing, painting, sculpting and photography. It is concerned with aesthetics, and most schools teach it during the arts and crafts period. Language Arts — Language Arts is concerned with grammar and communication, or simply put, the use of a language. It includes learning any language and using it in things like creative writing. Physical Arts — Subjects like dance, sports etc., fall under the category of Physical Arts, or subjects based on physical activity. Manual Arts — Arts that use physical skills or physically manipulating objects are categorised as Manual Arts. Examples include architecture and landscape design. Liberal Arts — Another new education buzzword, at least for India, Liberal Arts covers academic disciplines rooted in humanities and social sciences. Subjects like philosophy, ethics, political science and sociology fall into this category. How does STEAM Education help children? Arts not only complements STEM Education, but it is also practically taught that way. Art and design play prominent roles in STEM, including but not limited to product design, communication (language arts), and history that sets the context for an engineering problem. Moreover, studying arts teaches people the value of contemplation, creativity and innovation. It increases a person’s knowledge of culture, an edge that differentiates between good and great candidates in the workforce. It helps people find creative solutions to problems that require different perspectives. For instance, Sheetal, the art director at Agastya, says studying art makes her students more open to critical observation, helping them approach a subject from different angles. Arts can also make STEM topics more interesting, especially for kids who don’t like science or math. When they see math and science in nature and beauty, they think about the world differently, altering their approach to subjects in school. Science has always depended on hands-on projects and experiments to teach theoretical concepts. These experiments rely largely on manual and physical arts. Hence, the knowledge of arts helps children understand subjects by seeing, touching, and doing. In other words, the arts help a child relate STEM to the real world. Kindergarten and primary school students especially connect best with things they can touch, see, or use. Using art experiments help them connect these things with science concepts by allowing hands-on experiments. It thus allows children to make mistakes and challenge themselves while creating or participating in such experiments. Since there isn’t a single correct answer in art, especially compared to science or math, it allows kids to find different solutions and not be disheartened by failure. The most crucial benefit of arts education is that it helps raise well-informed children who empathise with problems worldwide because they are taught culture from around the world. They grow up to be well-rounded adults who understand that becoming a doctor or engineer is not the only way to help the world. Does such categorisation actually help? The farther you’ve come down in this article, the more you must be realising that all these fields are heavily interconnected. This begs the question: is such categorisation within educational subjects beneficial or detrimental? Sheetal, from the Agastya Arts Lab, as mentioned above, believes that the inherent curiosity of a child leads them down a path where ultimately science and arts both play a role in sating their curiosity. For example, when they’re first asked to draw the sky, most of them paint it blue. But then, when they observe the sky during different times of the day, they start noticing the different shades it is, from purple to white, leading them to play with lighting and painting the sky in different colours. They then start questioning why it is so, which leads them to the science behind the sky being different colours during other times of the day. Thus, the learning curve is fully achieved only when they learn both the aesthetic and the scientific aspects of a specific phenomenon, leading Sheetal to believe that differentiating between the two subjects is futile if the aim is to provide a complete education. What path leads us forward? The road we’re pursuing today ends with the interconnectedness of various disciplines. Hence, it’s becoming more critical to stop defining subjects to the extent of completely removing them from the orbit of other topics that complement them. This is where STEAM Education helps connect disciplines previously thought of as entirely separate from each other. But it is merely the first step towards holistic education that treats all subjects as branches of one common topic and treats each of its components as equally vital.

Written by Nethra Singhi “Learning by Doing” is a motto many educators are adopting today, aiming to make their classrooms more interactive instead of a lecture space. This is the motto Agastya has followed since its inception. But this then brings up the question: “Where to do?”. Our answer to this is our state-of-the-art Innovation Hub, a makerspace for students, where they sate their curiosity, conduct interesting experiments, and make working model solutions for real-life problems they face. Makerspaces? What are those? A makerspace is a place where one can use ready materials to experiment with and gain information from. It is born from the constructivist movement that believes one learns by creating and building upon existing knowledge. Simply put, it is a workshop or lab type of area where children can be curious, create and make their ideas and knowledge tangible. From films, engineering and architecture models to a robot or a mechanical eye, many things can be made in a makerspace. While the traditional classroom lecture format lends itself nicely to some subjects, many others need a new approach to cement understanding. Here, makerspaces aim to provide resources and areas for children to use their imagination and rationale to build their knowledge. They encourage them to experiment and create rather than merely consume. Keep in mind that what children create is not for an end project or done at the end of learning. It is in the process of creation that they study and what they make of the result. Using makerspaces is thus a way of student-centred learning that encourages them to nurture their spirit of inquiry. It also adds to their creativity and innovative thinking, something that is quite stifled in a traditional classroom. Moreover, makerspaces provide a unique opportunity for collaboration. When a group of students is learning the same topic, it gives them a way to discuss their opinions and provide tangible examples. For example, if they are learning about light and refraction, they can use objects in the makerspace to create a mirrored tower with different angles and intensities of light and study its effects. They can also create low-cost lighting solutions for houses that don’t have electric connections with daily use objects like aluminium foil, batteries, etc. What does it take to make a makerspace? The possibilities are endless. A makerspace can take many forms, from an entire library transformed into a learning commons with blocks and areas for children to create their own storybooks to a science lab where children can make the experiments instead of using pre-made models to study a phenomenon. The central idea is that a child should be able to MAKE it on their own and internalise a concept in that process. Thus, before transforming a physical place into a makerspace, thought needs to go into the pedagogical implications of it and what resources are being provided to what end. While all schools need to create makerspaces, one can do it in their own homes on a smaller scale. Find a corner that can safely store tools for your child and has space for them to use said devices, and voila! They have their personal makerspace. We at Agastya have Mobile Science Labs in buses that travel all across India. The “Mobile Innovation Bus” is a makerspace that provides the Kuppam Innovation Hub tools to lakhs of children in the country’s remotest corners! The Innovation Carnival was conceived to take the spirit of innovation mobile and start a program that could travel to create a more creative, curious, constructive, innovative new generation of students.

Written by Nethra Singhi From a barren land with a limited water supply and fluctuating electricity, the Agastya Kuppam Campus is now a lush green ecosystem with sustainable and eco-friendly sources for water and electricity. How did we do it? Read below. An aerial view of a section of the Agastya Kuppam Campus The vision behind the Kuppam Campus Ramji Raghavan, the co-founder and chairperson of Agastya, understood the importance of harmonising with nature while learning, or rather, the importance of the environment in which one learns. His vision was that the campus must have beautiful views and calming natural spaces that aid education. Hence, the idea from the start was to build a sustainable space for learning rooted in the local biodiversity of Kuppam. We took the help of renowned environmentalist Dr Yelappa Reddy, to do this. The Execution First, Professor Renuka Prasad, Head of Geology, Bangalore University, helped conduct a soil assessment study to assess the type of rocks in the area, its hydrological layers, the type and porosity of the soil present, etc. to determine the kind of landscape they were working with. In accordance with this, multiple check dams and irrigation channels were constructed that increased water storage in the area and replenished water levels underground. To combat the electricity problem, the primary natural resource of the area was harvested. Meaning they installed solar panels, windmills, and biogas fueled structures. Thus, the campus became sustainable, which improved the site’s natural landscape. From barren land, it was now land on which life could flourish. Many species characteristic of the Deccan Plateau and flora and fauna local to all the three states the campus borders (Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) are now present and well nurtured. Flora introduced to the site includes Neem, Jamun, Peepal , Red Sanders, Bamboo, and Bulea Monosperma or Flame of the Forest. These aided in recharging groundwater levels that in turn helped native species grow. The campus is now overrun with shrubs and greenery that many visiting children and teachers love and think is integral to the Agastya experience. Children observing a plant. Source: https://issuu.com/agastyasparks/docs/the_roots_of_creativity-ecology Agastya has not stopped here on its mission to be environmentally conscious. It also introduced ecology in its curriculum before the state government and has conducted many environmental programs on the Kuppam grounds. One such notable program is the My Tree Program, where students visiting the campus are each given a tree that they observe and help grow every time they come to the campus during their course. This makes them conscious of the nature around them and also helps their analytical skills. While the whole campus is deemed the Ecology Lab, the in-house ecology lab hosts several automated models that demonstrate several animals and plants’ life cycles and processes. It also provides sustainable solutions to life problems such as drip irrigation systems for farming, biofuel to reduce the carbon footprint etc. There are also several conceptual gardens like the Mulikavana and Saraswati Kund designed for specific learning processes and highlighting the different natural features of the campus. The Mulikavana Conceptual Garden: a herbal garden “designed to bring an umbilical connection with human anatomy” according to Dr Yelappa Reddy The Campus Today An IISC team consisting of nine researchers, including Mr Harish Bhat and lead scientist Dr Ramachandra, published a research report of the Agastya Campus. This report recorded the environmental and ecological developments on the campus between 2008 and 2014. There was a detailed analysis of all the species of flora and fauna existing on campus. The study concluded that the campus and areas around it reported increased vegetation cover from 11.9% in 2001 to 18.76% in 2014. Today, there are around 600 plants and about 223 animal species, including birds, spiders, amphibians, as well as 104 species of butterflies (as recorded by Dr R Bhanumati). We built a Butterfly Park in 2014 on our campus in an effort to increase environmental education for teachers and students. Several endangered species of the Eastern Ghats were also found in the vicinity. Some notable ones are the Indian Jackal, Pangolin, Spotted Deer, and subspecies of migratory birds like the Harriet and the Rosy Pastor from North America, Siberia, Tajikistan, Russia, and the Himalayas. The Brown Awl photographed by Dr R Bhanumati in the book Butterflies of Agastya Agastya won the Andhra Pradesh Green Award in 2018, recognising its efforts in creating an ecologically sustainable preserve that serves as the seat of learning. You can read more about our environmental plans here: https://issuu.com/agastyasparks/docs/the_roots_of_creativity-ecology

Written by Nethra Singhi What is peer-to-peer teaching? Stanford professor Rick Reis defines peer-to-peer teaching as “students learning from and with each other in both formal and informal ways.” Peer to peer teaching involves students imparting knowledge to other students. There is no distinction between student and teacher like there is in conventional classrooms. Students work in groups to solve problems, with a group leader guiding discussions. In a traditional classroom, the teacher is an expert on the subject and is in a position of authority to lead the classes. On the other hand, peer teachers are in equal standing with the students, as they are one of them. The benefits of peer learning and teaching Encourages teamwork and dialogue Peer Learning encourages students to work in groups and take part in group discussions, something a lecture format does now allow. They learn how to discuss, debate, and help each other out. It makes them better team players who can communicate their ideas successfully. 2. It helps students learn more effectively and actively There is a wealth of research to show that teaching something is an effective way to enhance your own understanding of the material. Moreover, discussing something allows others to add to your knowledge through their inputs. It also helps retain information better, as you discuss and relearn subjects actively in a peer-learning environment. 3. Increases confidence Peer to peer teaching and learning improve one’s public speaking skills. Since they have practised putting forth their ideas before a group, they are not fazed when facing it later in their workplace. Peer teachers gain leadership skills through leading the discussion and activities. Research suggests that because peer-to-peer teaching is less rigid than teacher to student teaching, it helps students be less tense about potential doubts and reduces the fear of failure. Hence, children are more likely to actively take part in the learning process and try their hand at new things without inhibitions. 4. Scope for improvement Participation in group learning activities helps children’s critical thinking and analytical skills. They feel easier asking for help and feedback from their peers rather than a teacher, as they need not fear authority. There is also more scope for personalised feedback, as their peer knows the student personally and can help target the exact areas they’re struggling in. 5. Improves academic performance When students are more engaged in the learning process, have confidence in their knowledge and skills, and have received more individualised assistance, it makes sense that they’ll perform better in studies and tests. So should all learning be done through peers? This is not to say that teachers are not required or are less important in the classroom. Of course, at the initial stage of learning a subject, an expert who can impart knowledge correctly is necessary. Where peer-to-peer teaching comes into play is the second stage. It supplements lecture learning by reiterating important concepts and helping students revise their knowledge. Moreover, in places like India, where schools cannot reach remote areas, peer teachers can reduce the burden of traditional teachers by acting as a force multiplier. One educated child can teach countless more children. This is the rationale behind Agastya’s Young Instructor Leader Program , which trains students to become effective, hands-on peer teachers and takes the Agastya way of learning far and wide.

This is a transcript of Ramji Raghavan’s podcast: Learning from the Mavericks: A Tribute to Ramanujan. . . . I first learnt about the self-taught mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan in Nehru’s Discovery of India. Less than a decade later, in 1987, Ramanujan invaded my thoughts again, in the form of a New York Times article, “An Isolated Genius Is Given His Due”. I felt proud as an Indian and also deeply touched by Ramanujan’s tragic and compelling life story snatched away so cruelly at the young age of thirty-two, almost as if it were conveying the romance of an unrealised promise. Then PBS TV in America brought out a fascinating and absorbing documentary called “The Man Who Loved Numbers” through interviews with Cambridge dorms and Mrs Ramanujan in Madras. The film explored Ramanujan’s all too brief life and extraordinary contributions to mathematics. It ended on a rather wistful note. While Ramanujan’s chief collaborator Hardy would be remembered through a plaque in Trinity College, Cambridge, there was no plaque or any other form of remembrance or acknowledgement for Ramanujan, whom Hardy and Littlewood had ranked among the greatest mathematicians in history. Just imagine that. In 1989 on a visit to Madras, now Chennai, over a cup of tea with my uncle, K Padmanabhan, I mentioned the PBS film on Ramanujan. To my great delight and marvellous surprise, my uncle offered to arrange a meeting for me with Mrs Ramanujan. After dinner that very same evening, I was led into Mrs Ramanujan’s modest home in Triplicane. A frail old woman, ninety years old, with bright liquid eyes and a sweet smile, hard of hearing, welcomed me. As we sat down, I couldn’t help but notice in that small and crowded space, a magnificent cast of Ramanujan I was told was made by an American sculptor and gifted by a group of international mathematicians. It was an arresting presence, almost as if Ramanujan was there. That his presence was shining through the bust and dominating the room, his deep penetrating eyes seemed to be staring into a faraway realm, almost privy to secret knowledge beyond the reach of us mere mortals. Mrs Ramanujan spoke about her husband as if he had just passed away a few weeks ago. It was surreal. With tears in her eyes, she said, “for him, it was just numbers, numbers, and numbers.” Almost in wonder, rotating her fingers, she said in Tamil: Kanaka, Kanaka, Kanaka . Numbers, numbers and numbers. And then she added, rather sadly, no one remembers my husband anymore. No one comes to see me. Only you and a math teacher from England, of Indian origin, have visited me in the last eighteen months. I was overcome with a sense of sorrow. As I stood up to leave, I presented her with a traditional gift of a saree and some fruit. I then leaned towards her and held her hand gently — I still remember the hand, the bluish-green veins on her light skin — and told her, “You should consider yourself lucky, very fortunate, for having had the opportunity to love and care for your husband — a man who will go down as being one of the greatest mathematicians in history and as one of the greatest Indian heroes.” A wonderful, almost grateful, smile lit up her face, almost like a young girl being complimented. As I walked out of her house, her foster son led me to a shop on the sidewalk that was selling some fine looking watercolour paintings of Ramanujan. I bought a few of them — one of them showed a young Ramanujan in pigtails with a picture of the goddess Namigiri in the background, Another showed a young Ramanujan and even younger, almost playful, Janaki (his wife, or to-be wife) sitting in front of the sacred fire, reciting Vedic hymns at their wedding. As I walked towards my car that night, I couldn’t help but visualise in my mind’s eye a young man dying with a pen and notebook in hand, furiously writing rarified mathematical formulae. As Mrs Ramanujan had recalled so movingly, for Ramanujan, it was only numbers, numbers, and numbers. He lived and breathed numbers. He even felt pain, physical pain, in terms of numbers. Kanaka, Kanaka, Kanaka . Just think of the intense passion of that man. I wished I could do something to honour his name, but I was a banker based in New York, and I had no idea how I might memorialise Ramanujan. The idea came to me years later, when as head of the Agastya International Foundation, I thought it would be inspirational to have a bust of Ramanujan at the Agastya Campus in Andhra Pradesh which welcomes thousands of village children and government school teachers from across the country. We commissioned Jayprakash Shirgaonkar, a well-known Mumbai based sculptor, to make the bust from four extant pictures of Ramanujan, one of which had made it to the 1962 commemorative stand. A few months later, a youthful and handsome looking bronze bust, thirty-three inches high and weighing fifty kilos, arrived at the campus, where it was unveiled by 2006 Ramanujan prize winner, Sujatha Ramadurai, and members of the National Knowledge Commission in 2008. And then, almost as if it were to set right the egregious oversight by Cambridge University, my father, KV Raghavan, a former trustee of Agastya, came up with the novel suggestion to gift Ramanjuan’s bust to Cambridge University. Sujatha spoke to her friend John Coates at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge, who responded with alacrity and said they would be delighted to have Ramanujan’s bust at Cambridge. Agastya also decided to gift busts of Ramanujan to three premier Indian educational institutions, namely IIT Madras, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and TIFR’s Centre for Applicable Mathematics, also in Bangalore. All three occasions attracted a number of visitors. Notable amongst them were Dr MS Swaminathan, who is the father of India’s Green Revolution, Mr Narayana Murthy, who is the founder of Infosys, Dr VK Aterai, or the former head of the DRDO, and Professor VS Ramamurthy, the then director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies. In May 2010, my family and I had the pleasure of joining John Coates, Martin Hyland, Tadashi Tokieda, and Sally Lowe for lunch at John’s office in the Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Lunch was followed by a visit to the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, where we spent time admiring Ramanujan’s magnificent bust. Martin commented that Ramanujan’s eyes seemed to be gazing at some faraway realm. In John’s words, literally hundreds of students will pass the bust each morning, and it will be a constant reminder to the large student body in mathematics that comes from all over the world of the greatness of Indian mathematical thought. In 2017, Sujatha Ramadurai, now a professor of mathematics and Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, and her husband, Ram Ramadurai, very kindly offered to donate money to create the Ramanujan Math Park, or RMP, as it’s now called on the Agastya Campus. Designed by Sujatha and VSS Shastri, a maths communicator, and actively supported by Mahavir, Thiagarajan, and Ajith Basu from Agastya, the RMP occupies five thousand square meters and is supported by a grant from the State Bank of India Mutual Funds and HD Parekh Foundation. It was inaugurated on December 22nd, Ramanujan’s birthday and India’s National Mathematics Day, in 2017. In 2018, a film of the Ramanujan Math Park was shown at the International Conference of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro by Sujatha and Tadashi Tokieda, who’s now at Stanford University. And then, with support from Ravi Kailas, in 2020, a bust of Ramanujan was sent to MIT in Boston, a project after my own heart. The first time that Agastya had gifted Ramanujan’s bust to a premier American university. In 2020, again, the RMP’s platonic exhibits were ranked among the best mathematics exhibits from the top fifteen math museums in the world. A small and perhaps fitting tribute to Ramanujan. Thousands of children and school teachers visit the RMP every year to experience the excitement and joy of learning mathematics hands-on. They get to see math in real life and in nature. Perhaps someday, one of them might shine like a brilliant star, as Ramanujan did and continues to do. When I do visit the RMP and stop to stare momentarily at his bust, I can’t help but remember my meeting with Mrs Ramanujan on that warm night so many years ago in Madras, now Chennai, and wonder what she might have said had she known that a math museum named after her great husband in a remote, rural area in India would one day find a place among the great math museums of the world. . . . The Learning From The Mavericks podcast pays tribute to some of the world’s greatest leaders and innovators, allowing us to learn from their lives and experiences. Find this episode of the podcast here: Podcast | Learning from the Mavericks: A Tribute to Ramanujan

Written by Nethra Singhi In a country of a hundred and eighty crore mobile phone users, seventy crores of which use the internet on it, it’s no surprise that mobile education is the future. This has been further proved during COVID-19 times, where students have been attending classes via mobiles and tablets. We at Agastya have always believed in the power of technology to make education more accessible and less costly. Hence, we had to tap into the potential of mobile education. Thus we launched the WeLearn app on the Playstore and offered the modules on phones and tablets under our Lab-on-a-Tab program. Then, during the first wave of the pandemic, we realised the potential of using the app to spread information about COVID-19, its symptoms, precautions to take, etc. Eleven COVID-19 modules were launched in six languages, including English. But because the app is designed for children, we took a different approach to spread this information. These modules address concepts pertaining to COVID-19, but they are cut across subjects, making information easier to understand and from different perspectives. COVID19 Module — 7th Class on the WeLearn App The pandemic created questions and interest in the students around communicable diseases, sickness, health. As it was a recent phenomenon, it became a learning opportunity. Thus, instead of restricting the modules to any subject boundaries, we used the learning opportunity to address a vast range of themes. These child-friendly COVID-19 Modules cover diverse topics like Biology, Mathematical models, the Socio-Economic impact of pandemics, Mental Health issues, the history of germs and viruses, the types of antibiotics and types of vaccines, and the immune system systems and also the History of Pandemics. The topics are explained through creative visuals, such as comic strips and whiteboard animations. Instead of putting these topics under the various subjects on the app, we created a separate subject called COVID-19. You can find the modules under each respective class, with issues appropriate for that age and standard. For instance, the history of pandemics is covered under class 7 in English and five other languages. 7th Class Course Material The app is designed for self-learning; hence, the child can go through the modules independently, select whatever topic they’re interested in, and learn through the animated lesson. Each lesson also comes with a summary quiz and activities the child can try at home, reinforcing known material. The latest COVID19 module about overcoming vaccine hesitancy to awaken the public to get vaccinated was published by the Lab-on-a-Tab (LOT) team. The module is aimed at both children and adults, taking one through the vaccination process and breaking down the science behind it so that one can see the benefits of taking the vaccine. You can download the WeLearn App here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.agastyawelearn&hl=en_IN&gl=US Some modules are also available on the myagastya.education website, another self-learning initiative by Agastya where a child can log in to their account and start their learning journey with animated videos and text material compliant with the CBSE syllabus.