THE MMA HIGH SCHOOL, MARAMON,
MARAMON P.O., PATHANAMTHITTA DISTRICT; PIN 689549
Telephone No. 04682213072; E-mail
mmahs.maramon@gmail.comREPORT OF THE SPACE WEEK CELEBRATIONS, 2008
Our School.
Ours is a small village school in the aided sector with High School section only. There are only two divisions each in Std. 8, 9 and 10 one each of them being in the Malayalam medium and the others in the English medium. As now a days provision for quality education is either too expensive or just a show off, the common people are at dilemma. It is in this context that we are really proud of our humble school- humble in its appearance but it gives us plenty of innovative learning experience that lead to experience based quality education. We have, for instance, the Vacation Time Learning Festival every year designed in the form of workshops in which we translate our syllabus into various art forms. This year, the focus of study of the Learning Festival has been River Pamba, which we took as a local text. We are proud to say that towards the end of that one week of workshop, we could bring out a documentary film on Pamba, in the form of a T. V. news. We have also a monthly paper publication, printed, in which the students get plenty of opportunities for creative writing, drawing etc.
The Space Week.
We were in fact looking forward for the announcement of the Space Week celebrations this year in the website of the VSSC. At last we saw the announcement in the ‘Padippura’ page of the Malayala Manorama daily. We were so anxious, as we had got the recognition as one of the best ten schools in Kerala to have conducted the Space Week celebrations in a befitting manner in 2006. Last year we lacked proper time management among many programs of the school which came simultaneously and hence could not send the entry in time. So we were determined to participate this year. As a first step we formed a Space Club as a division of the School Science Club well in advance of October 4th.
The following were the main programs proposed this year.
1. Inauguration
2. Competitions
(i) Book Review (Individual)
(ii) Setting of Questions for Quiz Competition. (Class wise)
(iii) A Space Quiz Competition.
(iv) Elocution Competition.
3. Preparation of a Space Album.
4. Publishing a special issue of the School Monthly News Paper ‘Puthumazhathullikal’ in connection with the Chandrayan Mission
5. A visit to the VSSC by the whole school.
6. Construction of a big model of PSLV and fixing it in the school compound.
7. Publishing a Blog of the School Space Club.
The Details.
The Space Week Celebrations and the School Space Club were inaugurated on 4th October by Sri. Eapen Mathew, the School Headmaster. He congratulated the members of the Science Club and the staff advisers for taking initiative in forming a special club exclusively for Space Studies. He reminded that as a result of the Space Week Celebrations two years before, the interest of children at school in Space Science became intensified and widespread. He shared that some of the participants of those celebrations at the point of leaving the school after successful completion of their secondary education sought for guidance as to which course they had to select so that they could join the stream of Space Studies. Now the ISRO has a Higher Education Institute which stands at the level of IIT-s aiming to attract young genius to the field. He pointed out in what all ways the day to day life of even common people is benefited and influenced by Space Research. Following the inaugural session, group discussions took place and there was a special meeting of the members of the Space Club with Mrs. Susan George, the staff adviser of Science Club to finalise the programs and to assign duties so as to finish the various activities in a time bound manner.
The competitions were held on 6th and 7th. The competition for Book Review was given as an assignment. The task of setting questions for a Quiz Competition was given as a class wise activity which in turn was made a competition; it took place on 6th October.The real Quiz Competition and elocution competition were on 7th.
The following students got the highest positions in the competitions.
Elocution 1st : Jeevesh Varghese, Std. 10
2nd : Akhila Anil kumar, Std.9
Book Review 1st : Simon Thomas Kulathakal, Std. 10
No 2nd was found eligible.
Quiz Competition 1st : Sunu Rajappan, Std. 9
2nd : Ancy Mary Stephen, Std. 8
Setting of questions
For a Space Quiz : Sabhiraj P.S., Soumya Balan, Std 10.
(Best Question Paper only)
The 8th and 9th of October tuned out to be holidays so that the time was not sufficient to complete the tasks during that week itself, i.e., within 10th of October. However, we could publish a Blog on 7th itself; the address is
www.mmahsmaramon.blogspot.com. The work for the publication of Chandrayan Special issue of the Monthly, named ‘Puthumazhathullikal’ and making a Space Album were also carried out during these days, we joining together at houses of some of us. The Space Album was set by a team comprising Master. Simon Thomas Kulathakal, Ms. Megha Mohan, Ms. Serin Sara Koshy, Ms. Abha S. Kumar, Master Renjith C. Nair, Master. Sunu Rajappan and Ms. Leenu Mariam Roy. The task of publishing a Blog was taken by Master. Simon Thomas Kulathakal, Ms. Megha Mohan, Ms. Serin Sara Koshy, Master. Kevin Jacob, Ms. Reenu Elizabeth Roy and Master. Monu Cherian Chacko. The newspaper was published by the Editorial Board led by Master. Kevin Jacob (Chief Editor). The tasks altogether took some more days to have been completed after the valedictory day. The proposal to make and fix a big model of PSLV could not be fulfilled as we needed technical assistance in it. However, we have not given it up but hope to finish and fix it at the earliest.
The PTA committee had decided to make necessary arrangements for a one day study tour for the whole school to Thiruvananthapuram. As the Space Club wanted to visit the VSSC, they decided that VSSC should be one important place to visit. Accordingly, the whole school joined on a study tour on 10th October. We started at 5.00 AM, went first to the Botanical Garden at Palode and then to the VSSC. Only these two places of educational importance were visited on that day and by doing so we were making use of the opportunity for a study tour, one for real serious study. It was an event for the school and we felt it a thrilling experience. Especially, four of us got a chance to participate in the session for interaction with Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, the ISRO Chairman. When later we saw in the website, ‘The Hindu’(11h October) to have reported with importance a question that was asked to Dr. Madhavan Nair by Megha Mohan of our delegation, we were really overjoyed. The question was whether the space missions would not pollute the earth severely. His answer was quite delightful and gave us a new understanding. He said that a space craft would not cause pollution even as much as the vehicles do at Statue Junction on a normal day.
Thus the valedictory Day of Space Week proposed by the VSSC became the Final day of Space Week Celebrations of our school on a grand scale. Perhaps we may have been the visitors to the VSSC on that day from the farthest place and with the largest number of students in one team. We traveled more than 175 km to join the Space Week Celebrations at the VSSC and even that with the whole school. Also we may have been the only ordinary village school to have visited the VSSC and to have attended the interactive session with the chairman on such an auspicious day. When a few days later the magnificent victory of the Chandrayan mission was being celebrated all over our nation and we saw on the T.V., Dr. Madhavan Nair congratulating and embracing his colleagues at the ISRO, we were involved whole heartedly in the happiness as if it were our own family affair.
The Space Week Celebrations this year has been a great experience for us all- for the whole school family as well as for those who actively gave leadership in organizing it. It has been a great success in the sense that it made such an endeavor to get awareness about the Space and universe at large and especially about Moon and Lunar Missions including the Chandrayan Mission.
Enclosure.
1. Copy of the Chandrayan Special issue of the printed paper, ‘Puthumazhathullikal’
2. Copy of the Space Album
3. Copy of the Book Review which got first at the school level competition.
4. Copy of the Question Paper with which Quiz Competition was conducted.
5. Copy of the Question Paper for Quiz which was selected best in the Questions Setting Competition.
Also kindly visit our Blog,
www.mmahsmaramon.blogspot.com.
Maramon, Simon Thomas Kulathakal, Megha Mohan
07.11.2008 Secretaries, Space Club
Countersigned by Mrs. Susan George, sponsor, Science Club.
CERTIFICATE
Certified that this report is true in every respect.
