btp report phase i jasmeet

8/3/2019 BTP Report Phase I Jasmeet

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Exploring Multiple Intelligence for Kids through Play

By

Jasmeet Singh Sethi

07020509

Under the guidance of

Prof. Avinash Shende

Department of Design

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GUWAHATI

Bachelors Thesis Project Tinkerable


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Bachelors Thesis Project - Tinkerable

2

Certificate

This is to certify that the project entitled :

Exploring Multiple Intelligence for kids through Play done by

Mr. Jasmeet Singh Sethi (07020519) is an authentic work carried out by

him at IIT Guwahati under my guidance.

The matter embodied in this project work has not been submitted earlier

for award of any degree to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Examiner 1

Examiner 2 .

Guide..


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IPR DeclarationI, the undersigned student, declare that in accordance to the IPR norms

generally followed in Academics, I have acknowledged appropriately all

sources of material / content including visuals / designs / copyrights

accessed from other authors / sources / references and used in this

project as part of our academic reporting.

I declare that the contents of this project report including

visuals/designs other than those whose origin / source has been

appropriately acknowledged, are a result of my original efforts.

Signature:

Jasmeet Singh Sethi

07020509

IIT Guwahati.


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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my guide Mr. Avinash Shende for the amount oftrust he put into me and my thoughts, no matter how farfetched they

seem. The project had always been very ambitious and his support was

all that was needed.

Secondly, I would like to thank Vivek and Adarsh for all the time they

invested. A special thanks to my friends, juniors and teachers for their

co-operation.

Special thanks to Asst. Librarian Mr. Rajbanshi for his enthusiasm and

knowledge.

Lastly, I would like to dedicated this project to the spirit of education

and its lost meaning.


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Abstract

There seems to be a need to understand a childs abilities and focus

so as to provide a better education and his development to a fully

realized individual.

The traditional notion of intelligence, based on I.Q. testing is limited

in terms of judging an individual and leads to stereotypes. The project is

an exploration based on the theory of M.I. by Dr. Howard Gardener,

using the theme of play.

.


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Contents

1.Introduction

1.1 Objective1.2 Aim1.3 Motivation1.4 Methodology

2. Literature Review

2.1 Intelligence2.1.1 Multiple Intelligence

2.2 Education in India2.2.1 Introduction2.2.2 Historical Overview


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2.2.3 Children and play2.2.4 Technology and Education-Critique

3. Analysis

3.1 Analysis of M.I.3.2 Case Example Lego blocks3.3 Intervention

4. Hypothesis

4.1 Intelligence4.2 Experiential Learning4.3 Guidelines

5. Product Concept

5.1 Concept5.2 Visualization5.3 Initial Draft

6. References


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1. Introduction


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" Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something

decisive to meet the increasing complexity of their society. They held a

meeting and finally decided to organize a school. The curriculumconsisted of running, swimming and flying. Since these were the basic

behaviors of most animals, they decided that all the students should take

all of the subjects.

The duck proved to be excellent at swimming, better in fact than his

teacher. He also did well in flying, but he proved to be very poor in

running. Since he was poor in this subject he was made to stay after

school to practice it and even had to drop swimming in order to get more

time in which to practice running. He was kept at this poorest subject

until his webbed feet were so badly damaged that he became onlyaverage at swimming. But average was acceptable in the school so

nobody worried about that except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but finally had a

nervous breakdown because of so much make-up time in swimming a

subject he hated.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed

psychological blocking in flying class when the teacher insisted he start

from the ground instead of from the tops of the trees. He was kept at

attempting to fly until he became muscle bound and received a C in

climbing and a D in running.


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1.1. Objectives

Development of possible design guidelines and solutions to act as a

medium to foster exploration in terms of different individuals abilities.The desired characteristics will be as follows:

Child centered Add-on to the current education system Blends easily in a play environmentThe focus will be on kids ( age group 6-10 yrs).

1.2. Aim

Development of a min. of 3 activities and one product based on the

observations and proposed guidelines.


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1.3. Motivation

The need for education is an issue that needs not a debate. There are

many organizations and individuals who are working to make educationreachable to more and more areas. This particularly shows our concern

towards development of education in terms of quantity.

On the other hand we also need to focus on the quality of

education. I mean so in terms of the types of education that can be made

available not only on the basis of the needs of the industry, but also on

the requirements and abilities of an individual.

A good degree of polarization is seen towards individual pertaining

used to or can be made used to general schooling where they areaccustomed to take paper-pencil tests featuring clearly delineated

answers.

The primary motivation can safely be assumed to be the alternative

schools in operation, which are trying their best to make education

available to children in a way that they feel to be at the centre of it.


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1.4. Methodology

The process this project will follow cannot be linear due to the

vastness of the issue concerned and at the same time, has to providetangible results at the end of the provided short time of a year. The

diagram above shows the process that will be followed.

It consists of two identifiable parts; first being divergent in nature,

will try to explore the realms that overlap with the concerned, through

the stated means, followed by the second phase which by its nature is

convergent, so as to make this fruitful in the form of a design-output.

Process Map [1.4]


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2. Review/Study


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The project demanded an exhaustive study of prevalent methods and

research. The domain of the study lied heavily in psychology and partly in

understanding norms which have been practiced since years and

therefore required a thorough understanding of the same if it was to becritically analyzed and challenged.

The study can be broadly divided into following parts-

Intelligence Child Psychology Education in India Technology and Education Play

2.1 Intelligence

Numerous definitions and hypothesis about intelligence have been

proposed, with no consensus reached by scholars. Intelligence has been

a topic of thorough study in psychology. It started from ability to

differentiate between sensory inputs, to mental processing and

abstraction. But being a science, it has a tendency to approach an issue

empirically. And thus started the works on trying to measure and

compare an individuals so called intelligence. This has led to formulationof tests, largely based upon logical and linguistic nature.

It lacks view of process, of how one goes about solving a problem. As

stated by Dr. Gardener, they rely heavily upon language and upon a

persons skill in defining words, in knowing facts about the world, in

finding connections (and differences) among verbal concepts.[2]


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There are many views and approaches towards intelligence; for

reference they have been explained briefly:

Piagetian

Piaget's work mainly concerned cognitive psychology. He says that an individual is continually constructing hypothesisand thereby attempting to generate knowledge. He talks about various stages of development of intelligence varyingfrom age group.

Informationprocessing

Briefly put, this is a step by step model of how intelligence can be considered from the point of view of informationprocessing. It talks about a horizontal approach, notion of a single-general problem solving approach.

The theory seems limited in terms of finding any biological basis. There seems to be no emphasis or explanation as suchon creativity.

Symbol

systems

This particular approach lays emphasis on human use of various symbolic vehichles in expressing and communicatingmeaning. The use of symbols has been at the core in various creative domains, such as, art, science, mythology, etc.

It lays views upon cultural backing of these symbols. It taks about domains, namely, universal and unique, elaboration

of which would deem unnecessary.


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2.1. 1. Multiple Intelligence

The theory of Multiple Intelligences was developed by Dr. HowardGardner, a psychologist, and professor of neuroscience from Harvard

University.

Traditionally individuals were viewed as possessing degrees of

intelligence, as measured by IQ or some test scores, usually made in

schoolcontexts, about school performance(the Piagetian view).

Developments in psychological theories have caused the

advancement of otherconceptions of intelligence. Modern theories of

intelligence have allowed for a dynamic and multidimensional view ofintellectualpossession. Models of intelligence that combine cognitive

processing interacting with contexts have allowed for these multiple

forms ofintelligence. For example, Sternberg (1994) has presented a

Triarchic theory of intelligence as that which encompasses attributes of

practical problem solving, verbal ability, and social competence.

Although the definition has expanded the Piagetian view, it continues to

place an emphasis on logical competence and verbal facility.

When Gardner was first asked to define intelligence in 1983, he

wrote: "To my mind, a human intellectual competence must entail a setof skills of problem solvingenabling the individual to resolve genuine

problems or difficulties that he or she encounters and, when

appropriate, to create an effective productand must also entail the

potential for finding or creating problems, thereby laying the


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groundwork for the acquisition of new knowledge." These prerequisites

represented his effort to focus on the strengths and abilities people

posses that are important in a particular cultural context. He believes

intelligence is a biopsychological potential.

CriteriaWhen considering evidence to support the existence of a new

intelligence Gardner looks for the following eight criteria. These are

merely brief excerpts from the more specific details that Gardner

provides in his text.

1. Potential Isolation by Brain Damage To the extent that, as aresult of brain damage, a particular faculty can be destroyed or spared in

isolation, its relative autonomy from other human faculties seem likely.

2. The existence of idiot savants, prodigies and other exceptionalindividuals To the extent that the condition of the prodigy or the idiot

savant can be linked to genetic factors or to specific neural regions, the

claim upon a specific intelligence is enhanced.

3. An identifiable core operation or set of operations One mighteven go so far as to define a human intelligence as a neural mechanism

or computational system that is genetically programmed to be activated

or "triggered" by certain kinds of internally or externally presented

information.

4. A distinctive developmental history, along with a definable set ofexpert "End-State" performances The existence of one or more basic

information-processing operations or mechanisms, which can deal with


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specific kinds of input.

5. An evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility A specificintelligence becomes more plausible to the extent that one can locate its

evolutionary antecedents, including capacities (like bird-song or primate

social organization) that are shared with other organisms.

6. Support from experimental psychological tasks Especiallysuggestive are studies of tasks that interfere (or fail to interfere) with

one another; tasks that transfer (and those that do not) across different

contexts; and the identification of forms of memory, attention or

perception that may be peculiar to one kind of input.

7. Support from psychometric findings To the extent that thetasks that purportedly assess ones intelligence correlate highly with one

another, and less highly with those that purportedly assess otherintelligences, his formulation enhances its credibility.

8. Susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system One of thefeatures that makes a raw computational capacity useful (and

exploitable) by human beings is its susceptibility to marshaling by a

cultural symbols systems. These would include culturally contrived

systems of meaning that capture important forms of information.

TypesGardner has identified nine intelligences although he has also been

considering the possibility of a tentha Spiritual Intelligence. The latter,

when brought up under the context of spiritual feeling or a gift for


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religion, mysticism or the transcendent, usually generates a great deal of

controversy with the science. The nine intelligences all human beings

possess and their primary distinguishing characteristics are as follows:

1. Verbal/LinguisticIntelligence: the capacity to use languageyour native language and perhaps other languagesto express what's onyour mind and to understand other people. Poets really specialize in

linguistic intelligence, but any kind of writer, orator, speaker, lawyer or

other person for whom language is an important stock in trade highlights

linguistic intelligence.

2. Logical/Mathematical Intelligence: the ability to understand theunderlying principles of some kind of a causal systemthe way a

scientist or a logician does; or can manipulate numbers, quantities and

operationsthe way a mathematician does.

3. Visual/SpatialIntelligence: the ability to represent the spatialworld internally (in your mind)the way a sailor or airplane pilot

navigates the large spatial world; or the way a chess player or sculptor

represents a more circumscribed spatial world.

4. Musical/RhythmicIntelligence: the capacities to think in music,to be able to hear patterns, recognize them and perhaps manipulate

them.

5. Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence: the capacity to use your wholebody or parts of your body (your hands, your fingers, your arms) to solvea problem, make something or put on some kind of production.


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6. Naturalist Intelligence: the human ability to discriminate amongliving things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of

the natural world (clouds, rock configurations).

7. IntrapersonalIntelligence: having an understanding of yourself,of knowing who you are, what you can do, what you want to do, howyou react to things, which things to avoid and which things to gravitate

toward.

8. Interpersonal Intelligence: a person's capacity to understandthe intentions, motivations and desires of other people and,

consequently, to work effectively with others.

9. Existential Intelligence: the proclivity to pose (and ponder)questions about life, death and ultimate realities.

The reason I go into this much detail of the particular theory is

because it will be extensively used in the process throughout this project

and therefore becomes a perquisite for further understanding of work.

Lastly, it should be kept in mind that, the theory of multiple

intelligences is nothing but a tool to understand the notion of

intelligence and abilities of an individual. It gives us a basis of

segmentation.


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2.2. Education in India

"Education in the true sense is helping the individual to be matureand free, to flower greatly in love and goodness"

- J. Krishnamurthi

2.2.1. Introduction

Each generation, since the beginning of human existence, has sought

to pass on cultural and social values, traditions, morality, religion and

skills to the next generation. The passing on of culture is also known asenculturation and the learning of social values and behaviors is

socialization. The history of the curricula of such education reflects

human history itself, the history of knowledge, beliefs, skills and cultures

of humanity.

In pre-literate societies, education was achieved orally and through

observation and imitation. The young learned informally from their

parents, extended family and grandparents. At later stages of their lives,

they received instruction of a more structured and formal nature,

imparted by people not necessarily related, in the context of initiation,religion or ritual.

As the customs and knowledge of ancient civilizations became more

complex, many skills would have been learned from an experienced

person on the job, in animal husbandry, agriculture, fishing, preparation


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and preservation of food, construction, stone work, metal work, boat

building, the making of weapons and defenses, the military skills and

many other occupations.

With the development of writing, it became possible for stories,

poetry, knowledge, beliefs, and customs to be recorded and passed onmore accurately to people out of earshot and to future generations. In

many societies, the spread of literacy was slow; orality and illiteracy

remained predominant for much of the population for centuries and

even millennia. Literacy in preindustrial societies was associated with

civil administration, law, long distance trade or commerce, and religion.

A formal schooling in literacy was often only available to a small part of

the population, either at religious institutions or for the wealthy who

could afford to pay for their tutors. The earliest known universities, or

places of higher education, started teaching a millennium or more ago.

Universal education of all children in literacy has been a recent

development, not occurring in many countries until after 1850 CE. Even

today, in some parts of the world, literacy rates are below 60 per cent

(for example, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh). Schools, colleges

and universities have not been the only methods of formal education

and training. Many professions have additional training requirements,

and in Europe, from the Middle Ages until recent times, the skills of a

trade were not generally learnt in a classroom, but rather by serving an

apprenticeship.

Nowadays, formal education consists of systematic instruction,

teaching and training by professional teachers. This consists of the

application of pedagogy and the development of curricula.


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2.2.2. Historical Overview

The present mainstream educational system was inaugurated in India

in the mid-nineteenth century. Over the next century, it almostcompletely supplanted earlier educational institutions. There had, earlier

been wide network of small village schools- pathshalas, gurukuls and

madarsas. 'One village -one school' was the norm in various parts of the

country, up to the early nineteenth century. A large number of such

schools - reportedly 100,000 in just Bihar and Bengal around 1835 - were

kept alive by local support (William Adam 1835, in Dharampal 2000).They

played an important social role and 'were, in fact, the watering holes of

the culture of traditional communities' (Dharampal 2000). Students from

various castes studied in these schools. In schools, subjects included

literature, philosophy, lexicology, religion and grammar. Instruction wasimparted in local languages. Harking back to the tradition of monastries

and ashrams, schools interspersed training in practical life skills with

academic education.

Within the overall context of decline of local economies, these

schools went into decline and decay under the colonial rule. Deliberate

policy was employed to wipe out this community-based system of

schooling, and replace it with an alien model.

In 1931, Gandhi alleged that 'today India is more illiterate than it was50 or a 100 years ago' (M.K. Gandhi 1931, in Dharampal 2000). He added

that British administrators had '...scratched the soil and begun to look at

the root, and left the root like that and the beautiful tree perished.'

Indigenous education was replaced by an alien rootless system,


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deliberately set up, as articulated by Lord Macaulay (1835), to 'form a

class who interprets between us and the millions we govern; a class of

persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in

morals and in intellect'.

Despite the transfer of power in 1947, Indian schools continued inthe same mold. Some changes were introduced: the government

expanded its network of schools in both rural and urban areas, and local

languages were accepted as the medium of instruction in these schools.

Today, we have a vast network of government schools in the country,

and a growing number of privately run institutions. Yet, the basic format

remained unchanged; a large number of our schools today are based on

a derivative, mechanistic model. They are designed to produce

individuals who fit into modern society and it's (consumerist,

competitive) values, and are easy to govern since they learn to be highly

disciplined within hierarchical, centrally administered institutions.Schooling thus tends to reinforce social inequalities - class, gender and

caste.

Despite vital differences in facilities and funding, all these schools

share a similar ethos. Mostly competitive, many of them emphasize

external discipline at the expense of inner responsibility. Further, the

accent is on absorbing information rather than on original thinking and

imagination. The setup is centralized and bureaucratic, teachers

distanced from students and most merely doing a job, while the schools

act as delivery points for a set curriculum and content. Few students whopass out of these schools love to learn, since they associate learning with

boredom and pressure.


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2.3. Children and Play

Less known is Vygotsky's research on play, or children's games, as a

psychological phenomenon and its role in the child's development.Through play the child develops abstract meaning separate from the

objects in the world, which is a critical feature in the development of

higher mental functions.[3]

The famous example Vygotsky gives is of a child who wants to ride a

horse but cannot. If the child were under three, he would perhaps cry

and be angry, but around the age of three the child's relationship with

the world changes: "Henceforth play is such that the explanation for it

must always be that it is the imaginary, illusory realization of unrealizable

desires. Imagination is a new formation that is not present in theconsciousness of the very raw young child, is totally absent in animals,

and represents a specifically human form of conscious activity. Like all

functions of consciousness, it originally arises from action." (Vygotsky,

1978)

The child wishes to ride a horse but cannot, so he picks up a stick and

stands astride of it, thus pretending he is riding a horse. The stick is

apivot. "Action according to rules begins to be determined by ideas, not

by objects.... It is terribly difficult for a child to sever thought (the

meaning of a word) from object. Play is a transitional stage in thisdirection. At that critical moment when a stick i.e., an object

becomes a pivot for severing the meaning of horse from a real horse,

one of the basic psychological structures determining the childs

relationship to reality is radically altered".


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As children get older, their reliance on pivots such as sticks, dolls and

other toys diminishes. They have internalizedthese pivots as imagination

and abstract concepts through which they can understand the world.

"The old adage that 'childrens play is imagination in action' can bereversed: we can say that imagination in adolescents and schoolchildren

is play without action" (Vygotsky, 1978).

Another aspect of play that Vygotsky referred to was the

development of social rules that develop, for example, when children

play house and adopt the roles of different family members. Vygotsky

cites an example of two sisters playing at being sisters. The rules of

behaviour between them that go unnoticed in daily life are consciously

acquired through play. As well as social rules, the child acquires what we

now refer to as self-regulation. For example, when a child stands at thestarting line of a running race, she may well desire to run immediately so

as to reach the finish line first, but her knowledge of the social rules

surrounding the game and her desire to enjoy the game enable her to

regulate her initial impulse and wait for the start signal.

2.4. Technology and Education[4] - a critique

Technologys role in imparting education is increasing day by day. It isused in the form of presentations, applications and other multimedia

content. It aids in the form of a strong visual medium. Dictionary

searches, accumulating data and knowledge from encyclopedia had


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never been easier. The content is presented through use of pictures,

images, graphic organizers, mind-maps, videos, etc.

All said and done, it seems quite unfair to teach a child about a plant

through only using books or the above stated multimedia content, if he

has a choice to see the plant for real, to touch it, feel it and observe itclosely, to plant a seed and see the plant grow in his supervision. This

process should be finally aided with the use of books or any other

technology medium.

Technology needs to be used as an aid, rather itself being the primary

medium in question. How can an online feedback system incorporate the

notion of a teacher, who is always there to guide, not just in the sense of

the subject a student is struggling in? How can an interactive chat system

make a child strong socially, if he is too afraid to even come out of his

room?

The primary modes and methods of helping a child to learn, needs to

be further developed before we can have independent technology

intervene. To teach him about a squirrel, why not let him play with a

stuffed toy in its form. It seems fitting that the appreciation of its shape

and form would dramatically increase; also would show a further jump

when aided with technology as an aiding tool.

What needs to be regained is the physicality, at least for domains

that demand it; if possible, a link to the real world around the kid isneeded, so as they can themselves make connections. As said above, the

process can rightfully be aided by technology, but technology should not

be used as a replacement for it.


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The media-aids, help in terms of visual and auditory sensory

experiences, but they fail to incorporate rest of the senses. The full

sensory experience needs to be communicated through its respective

sense and not always linguistically or through visually dominant media.


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3. Analysis


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3.1. Analysis of M.I.


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3.2. Case Example LEGO Blocks

Lego building blocks utilize to the core, the understanding of spatial

relationships, to build structures. Children try their best to make figuresthat they find attractive. Not to forget the limitless possibility if offers for

kids to make things purely thorugh imagination. Interpersonal aspect is

touched, when kids try try to work in groups and teams to create the full

arsenal of their fantasy world.

No. of children invloved - atleast 1

Nature of tasks additive, constructive

Nature of solutions open-ended, no solution in particular

Motivation factor Stated examples; house, robots, etc.

Intelligences involved Visual/Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal

3.3. Intervention

IIT Guwahati has weekend art classes, hosted in Technology

Complex. This setup was chosen for the intervention. The classes start

from 9 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. every Sunday, having 3 groups of students,from classes 1

st, 2

ndand 3

rdrespectively. Total strength of around 40 is

generally seen.


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Activity Zero - Mute Observers

For the zero session, we chose to be mute observers. The wholesession was overseen and documented. Two coordinators were available,

who conducted the whole session of around 40 kids. The general mode of

teaching was passive. Room had 3 blackboards, on which a certain scene

or object had been drawn by the coordinators/instructors. This was

supposed to be copied and colored in individual drawing books.The

classes consist of basically 2D drawings and coloring. Students try to

imitate what is drawn on the board as much as possible in their

sketchbooks.

Child/ Coordinator ratio20:1Nature of taskPassive

Nature of solutionSingle solution

Motivation factorOn board example

Intelligences InvolvedVisual/Spatial

Discussion

The session managed with a ratio of 20 students per coordinator,

lacks in the possible individual attention a child may need. The singlesolution approach helps in developing drawing skills but lacks in inviting

creativity as a major element.


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Activity One Rocket Launch

The children consisted in 3 groups; 1st, 2nd and 3rd standard

respectively.1st standard children were given the two small sizedcardboard pieces along-with 2nd standard ones. Seniors were given

some small pieces and many larger ones. The tools available were

pencils, cutters and duct tapes. Use of colors was left optional.

The children working on 2d structures, finished fast and moved on to

make larger objects, like 2D monsters or to 3D objects. Children were

getting inspired by other children around them. This seemed to be a

good example of how children learn things, while doing things in groups.

Child/ Coordinator ratio8:1

Nature of taskActiveNature of solutionOpen-ended

Motivation factorScrap build structures

Intelligences InvolvedVisual/Spatial, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal,

Bodily-Kinesthetic

Discussion

Initial ideas kids had, concerned mainly box like objects. Any specific

use didnt really concern them. Buildings and rockets were the common

ideas. A fix with 2D forms was also observed amongst many children,which can be traced back to being seasoned through these art classes

held weekly.

This one session also boosted up the interactivity. It was observed

that 3rd standard students worked better in terms of teamwork; also


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they showed the tendency to think before doing. Some preferred to

sketch before actually making anything.


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Activity Two Salad Monsters

We prepared a list of vegetables and condiments to suit children. The

vegetables were sliced, diced and grated.The kids were first of all introduced to the festival of Holi and the

respective mythology. The session turned to be the initial icebreaker.

The activity required them to use plates as canvases and the salad

vegetables as the colour. They were to think about their fears the so

called monsters. The plan was to let them make their monsters, than

to swap them with their friends, so as they can help each other eat their

monsters off using the condiments. The activity went as planned except

for the swapping part.

The task ended with introducing condiments for kids to eat off their

monsters, after being photographed.


Nature of taskActive

Nature of solutionOpen-ended

Motivation factorMonster/Fear

Intelligences InvolvedVisual/Spatial, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal,

Naturalistic

Discussion

The different cut shapes were used as basic elements to create the

monsters. Children made monsters inspired from their reservations and

fears. Some had no clear idea of how their monsters looked, while some


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chose to discover the form in the process of making. Kids showed a great

affinity towards ketchup. Some preferred honey and tamarind sauce.


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Activity Three Wally

The wall of the TC room was covered with A2 sheets this time. The

raw materials were; newspaper cutouts in variety of shapes and sizes,

cardboard stencils to be used on walls and glue.

At first kids were given the newspaper cutouts and glue to stick

shapes on walls. This was done for around 30 minutes. After this, they

were handed wax crayons and cardboard stencils. The use of more

newspaper cutouts was kept optional.


Nature of taskActiveNature of solutionOpen-ended

Motivation factorCommon Giant Canvas

Intelligences InvolvedVisual/Spatial, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal

Discussion

Kids showed a tendency to stick to their own working regions as their

personal canvas. To limit this, kids were instructed to change positions

midway in session.


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4. Hypothesis


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4.1. Intelligence

A characteristic oflive beings, which due to its very nature, aids insurvival through understanding and/or utilization ofresources

presented to the being.

Intelligence is a characteristic of lifeforms Lifeforms aim at survival

and this is the property that lets them. What does this property do? It

gives them the ability to utilize resources for their survival; how much

they understand this, is a matter of how developed that intelligence is.

The intelligence can be very well governed by the cultural influence.

For that reason, there arises the case of selective exposure.Like father,like son syndrome, talks about high tendency of exposure to same set

of skills as the parents, or peer group [cultural group]. This makes way

for so called polarity, and reduces the chances of full mental

development.

It is supposed that one intelligence can be nurtured, using the other

as a base.

To get an idea of the same, a subject was asked to perform a task.

SubjectMathematically dominant, not confident in visual skills

Task Using math as an inspiration to draw illustrations.

Time1 hour

The illustrations so made, are shown on the left side.


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Play Experience Learn

4.2. Experiential Learning

The learning can be attributed to the experiences that we have. The

human brain works by making connections between differentinformation. The process demands constant influx of new information

and at the same time old information connections need to be reaffirmed

by exposure to similar experiences. All and all, kids are experience

hungry machines when they are in the learning phase.

The activities and environment should be able to provide different

possible experiences to aid the process. The project lies around

suggesting, play as an experience stimuli. Children have a tendency to

involve in play as a means to indulge them, and the above stated

behavior starts subconsciously.

The reasons that can be thought of for explaining the pros of play are

as follows-

Incorporates a sense of discovery Removes inhibitions Attributes to group behavior/ imitation of social groups Learn by doing approach Recreational Feeling of independence


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4.3. Guidelines


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5.Product Concept


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5.1. Concept


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The concept consists ofglass canvas, which will be painted/ colored,

using rolling stencil sheet as an aid. The movable sheet provides

freedom to draw at different parts of canvas. The rolling action provides

flexibility in terms of trying to use the full stencil.

The concept derives heavily from Visual/Spatial and Interpersonal

Intelligences. The use of stencils as aid (Activity three), helps children to

easily draw elements they like. Stencils can be of different types based

on content they carry. The stencils can aid as a means of visual

inspiration.

The integration of this module in a space can lead to a collaborative

approach amongst kids, due to the large size of the canvas and flexibility

of use from both the sides.


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5.2. Visualization


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Stencil Sheet Graphics


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Social Collaboration


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5.3. Initial Draft


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6. References


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[1]www.janebluestein.com/handouts/animal.html

[2]Frames of Mind Howard Gardener

[3]Paul Tough, Can the right kinds of play teach self-control?, New York Times, 2009/09/27 (reviewing the Tools of

the Mind curriculum based on Vygotskys research

[4]Carlson-Pickering, Jane. 1999. "Multiple Intelligencesand Technology: A Winning Combination"

Rhode Island Teachers in Technology Initiative - (RITTI)

Web:(http://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-Pickering/MI_Tech.htm)

[5]Teaching mixed media to children Karla Cikanova

[6]Muiltimodal teaching and learning Kress, Jewitt,

Ogborn and Tsatsarelis

[7]Alternative Schooling in India Vittachi Raghavan
http://www.janebluestein.com/handouts/animal.htmlhttp://www.janebluestein.com/handouts/animal.htmlhttp://www.janebluestein.com/handouts/animal.htmlhttp://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-http://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-http://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-http://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-http://www.janebluestein.com/handouts/animal.html


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