Finding meaningful solutions to unmet social problems

Why the online course for promoting compassionate creativity and innovation among children?

This online course aims to help   children become impatient with inertia, to innovate new solution of unmet social and personal needs. The children will need to understand the meaning of what is beautiful, how beauty lies in solving real problems, meeting unmet social needs and deriving joy out of such endeavors.

The creative problem solving requires developing samvedana or empathy, internalizing others’ pain as one’s own. The children are naturally creative; their playfulness often involves tinkering with ideas. But in the process of growing up, they are made to conform, collude, converge, and comply.

This course hopefully will help children become more responsible towards society and nature, and finally towards their own untapped potential.

The teachers attending the program might find clues for nurturing the autonomy and agency of the children. The impatience with inertia may hopefully evolve into innovative and empathetic attitude towards life. The lockdown across the country due to the Corona virus has forced all of us including children to stay indoors for a long time now. During these trying times, an initiative has been taken up by the Honey Bee Network, SRISTI and GIAN to boost children’s curiosity and creativity.

Objectives

  • To inculcate a spirit of samvedana among children and make them impatient with inefficiency, inertia ns injustice in society
  • To help them discover innovative solution to the persistent problems and unmet social needs
  • To encourage children to ask basic questions about widely prevalent culture of conformity, congruence and compliance.
  • To help them learn that disagreement is not a sign of disrespect. The creative problems solving inevitably involves questioning prevalent ways of dealing with those problems.
  • To help them appreciate the need for compassionate collaboration to take solution forward to make a real difference in the world.

 

There are several questions we ask in this course:

  • Do we ever get disturbed or feel pained on seeing the suffering of others, whether human or animals?
  • Are we pained enough to feel restless about it? Does this restlessness force us to take some initiative, no matter how small?
  • Are we willing to collaborate with others to solve various social problems in an open and collegial manner?

Lesson 1

How to Innovate, How to Invent

आओ चलो हम आविष्कार करे

Assignment 1

  1. What do you find beautiful around you? Write, illustrate and reason, why do you consider it beautiful
  2. Notice the unmet social needs, the unsolved problems around and if you have creative ideas to solve, them share them (u can share covid 19 related solutions also but do not restrict to them)
  3. Have you come across any creative problem solver, innovator, odd ball around you? Write about her/him?
  4. Talk to your grandparents, uncles/neighbours, and learn from how they solved problems in their time, traditional knowledge (TK) which might have relevance even now, stories/songs about conservation of nature. Sometimes TK of one place and people may become innovative for another.

असाइनमेंट 1

(क) आपके आस पास मे आपको सबसे सुन्दर क्या लग रहा है?

(ख) आपके आस पास मे कौन कौन सी समस्याएँ हैं उस के बारे में बताओ । जो समस्या है आस पास, उनका समाधान अगर मन में आए तो वो भी आप को बताना है।

(ग) आपके घर या गाँव मे जो बुजुर्ग हैं तो दादा दादी से उनके जीवन की मुख्य सीख, अनुभव, पारम्परिक ज्ञान या कोई, देशी पद्धतिअच्छी कहानी आप को लिखकर कर भेजनी है

(घ) आप के गाँव में या गाँव के आसपास किसी ने आविष्कार किया है। जिनसे वहाँ की समस्या का समाधान हुवा है।

Lesson 2

Children’s participation in innovation process – churning of knowledge, knowledge to creativity, creativity to coordination, and coordination to promotion of inclusive knowledge

बच्चों के द्वारा आविष्कार में भागीदारी ज्ञान मंथन में, ज्ञान से सर्जन, सर्जन से संयोजन, संयोजन से संवर्धन

Assignment 2

  1. Search a new innovation which can resolve more than one problem simultaneously.
  2. Design a solution in such a way that the root -cause of the problem is totally resolved.
  3. Further what modifications can be done to the things you use in your day to day life?
  4. What drawbacks do you find in the things you see in your surroundings and give suggestions about their modification?

असाइनमेंट 2

(क) एक नया इनोवेशन खोजें जो एक से ज्यादा समस्याओं को हल करे।

(ख) ऐसा समाधान सोचे की जो समस्या को जड़  से मिटा दे।

(ग) अपने आसपास की विद्यमान चीज़ में कुछ बड़ा परिवर्तन क्या हो सकता हे वो सोचें ।

(घ) अपनी आसपास की चीजों को देखें  और सोचे के उसमे क्या कमी हे? उस कमी को कैसे दूर किया जाये उसके ऊपर विचार कीजिये।

Lesson 3

Let us learn from innovations done by children

बच्चो ने जो आविष्कार किया है चलो हम उनसे सीखे।

Assignment 3

  1. Write about the drawbacks of the things around your surroundings.
  2. Write your views to resolve the drawbacks.

असाइनमेंट 3

(क) अपने आसपास की चीजों को देखे, उनमे कमी ढूंढे और लिखे।

(ख) उस कमी को कैसे दूर कर सकते हैं उस पर अपने विचार लिखे।

Lesson 4

Let us learn from innovations done by children internationally

विदेश के बच्चो ने जो अविष्कार किया हे चलो हम उनसे सीखे।

Assignment 4

  1. Make a list about the things which are being wasted in and around our school. For example, toothpaste box, tea box, milk pack.
  2. Explore and innovate to utilize them, apply creativity to smoothen our daily life by keeping in view the pollution aspect

असाइनमेंट 4

(क) हमारे घर या स्कूल के आस-पास जो भी सामान व्यर्थ जा रहा है उसकी सूची बनाऍ। उदहारण के लिए: टूथपेस्ट की डब्बी, चाय का डब्बा, दूध की थैली

(ख) उनको नवीन अन्वेषण के द्वारा उपयोग के लायक बनाएँ, नई-नई चीज़ें बनाएँ जिससे हमारा जीवन और भी आसान हो सके। देश में गंदगी न फैले उसका ध्यान रखें।

Lesson 5

Let us learn creativity from empathy

संवेदना से सर्जनशीलता

Assignment 5

Lesson:

  1. Understand the problems around your surroundings
  2. Show your concern for the problem.
  3. Resolve the problem faced by others in your own innovative aspect.
  4. Imbibe the ideas of others and inculcate with your thought to get an innovative output.

Homework:

  1. Make a bamboo cabinet in your kitchen over the stove and dry your vegetables over there. The roasted vegetables are then cooked for meals.
  2. Make a list of all the problems around your surroundings. Write solution for
    the problems keeping in mind the utilisation of wasted or discarded materials.

असाइनमेंट 5

सबक:

  1. दूसरों की परेशानियों को समझें।
  2. उन परेशानियों के प्रति संवेदना जगाएं।
  3. दूसरों की परेशानियों को ऐसे हल करें, जैसे कि वो खुद की परेशानी हो।
  4. दूसरों के विचारों से ज़्यादा प्यार करें ताकि, हम अपने विचारों से हट कर सोच सकें।

गृहकार्य:

  1. रसोईघर में चूल्हे के ऊपर बांस के तख्ते का ढांचा बनायें। उस तख्ते पर सब्जियां और अनाज को सुखाने के लिए रखें, ताकि चूल्हे की आंच से गरम हो कर सब्जियां और अनाजसूख जाएँ। ऐसी सिकी हुई सब्जियों और अनाज का नाश्ता बनाकर लाएं।
  2. अपने आसपास की समस्याओं की सूचि बनाएं । उन समस्याओं का सुझाव खोजें और लिखें। ध्यान रहे की, अपने आस-पास की उपयोग में ना आने वाली वस्तुओं को जोड़कर समाधान खोजें।

Let us understand the unmet needs of the society

आओ सामाजिक जरूरतों को पहचाने।

Lesson 6

Assignment 6

  1. Find at least 10 such problems which exists in your surroundings whose solutions have not been found yet
  2. Write 10 novel solutions you have thought of to solve solutions to above scouted problems

असाइनमेंट 6

(क) हमारे आस-पास के परिसर में, स्कूल में या घर के आस-पास की 10 ऐसी समस्याए ढूंढे जिसका अभीतक कोई समाधान न हुआ हो | 

(ख) 10 ऐसे विचार लिखे जिस समस्याओ का आपने कुछ समधान निकाला हो |

Lesson 7

How to find a solution through collaboration?

सहयोग से समाधान

Assignment 7

  1. Try to find solutions to problems together with grassroots innovators

असाइनमेंट 7

  1. ग्रासरुट्स इनोवोवेटर के साथ बैठकर समस्याओं का समाधान खोजने का प्रयास

Lesson 8

Let us learn from nature

चलो प्रकृति से सीखें।

Lesson 9

From ideas to practice

विचार से व्यवहार

Lesson 10

Let us revise

संशोधन