Science Museum cum Center

Introduction:

"India's key challenge is to rapidly provide its population with opportunities to become educated, develop basic leadership and problem-solving skills, to raise productivity, entrepreneurship and material standards of living."

If your school's vision or mission is about creating Leaders of tomorrow, with strong problem solving skills and a basic drive in life to be creators then may be the remainder of the document would prove useful to you. We, at Butterfly Fields, believe that a critical aspect of learning is also about direct experiences with materials, objects, and phenomena and how they interact with each other. Most of the current methods of learning depend largely on books and lectures and the knowledge transmitted to children is therefore bookish. Very few opportunities exist for children to apply their knowledge to real life situations.

This we hope can be bridged through hands-on learning & exploration sessions! The learning center approach provides the time when children explore and practice skills to their own satisfaction. These sessions provide children with opportunities for hands-on learning, cooperative learning, social interaction, real-life problem solving, autonomous learning, and open-ended activities.

What is a Labb? :

This is a place where children would come and solve problems; design, make and test things.

The problems they would solve could range from real life problems like designing a non-detachable cap for a pen or designing a wheel chair which could climb an incline with lesser effort to designing machines of transport or action programmed or built to perform.

The Labb would be a place where anybody who has ideas can come and give shape to them. It would be a place where all the required information, infrastructure and material would be made available to those who crave to innovate and explore. In the Labb, the participants would take up projects, design, draw plans, set deadlines, estimate costs for the project, execute and test and their designs

Investment Required:

Science Museum: There are 3 different categories, Basic level: Approximately Rs.15K, Medium Level Rs.40K and Premium Level Rs. 1 Lac

Science Workshop: Trolley stand is Rs.7K, Tools and materials Rs.3K per trolley. There could be 4-8 such trolleys filled with tools in the science center,

Mini Fabrication shops, e.g. Carpentry, Smithy, Soldering, Welding, etc. could range from Rs.50K each


Space Design Considerations:

o Ample display area for exhibiting the models created by the students

o The floor area allotted to each work area must be scratch proof or some arrangement must be made to ensure that the space does not get defaced and can be cleared and tidied with ease.

o The layout of the store must be such that there is flexibility in terms of creating a common meeting place for all the groups. It could be create a testing track for the models created or discuss a common problem or to watch some movie screenings.

o Furniture to be sturdy, light and not too comfortable.

o Easy access to all the groups in the area

o Material movement within the laboratory must be defined and must be optimized.

o A special shelf space to display kits, books, toys and other resources which would be for sale.

o Lockers and Signages

o The Wall area to be used effectively to display things like famous quotes, biographies of scientists, scientific charts, anecdotes, problem statements from daily lives to ponder on and some more.

o The place and systems at the work areas and the fab shops should be such that the waste generated during fabrication could be tidied and cleared up with little effort.

o The paint on the walls and the furniture to be scratch proof and not easily defaceable.

o Work areas, meeting areas, walking areas and material movement paths to be clearly defined and demarcated

o The place to sealed from the traffic and sound outside

o The place to look spacious and bright o Good amount of greenery inside the lab

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