Category: Aarsh Mehul Shah

*the man in the blue jacket.

U-turn is street fair conducted every sunday in my city Surat, people come here and show their talents and perform something for the locals. On 13th of august there is a Organ donation day, so one of my friend thought of making people aware about the importance of the donation of the organ after they die. Donating organ is very important and this activity led many people to sign an agreement to donate their organs when they die. There are very few organs available when needed for a transplant and this small activity/ Drama in front of people could solve one of the global issue.

This was the first time I would be performing in front of hundreds of people and it was in a form of drama. Drama is performed live, it has to be interesting then only people would watch it and the most important thing is not have fear while performing. So performing in front of local people and conveying our idea to them was difficult because some people seem very disinterested as the crowd would think this is some type of a lecture or it isn’t very relevant, we tried and acted the script 2 time but that didn’t work out, and that’s where we thought to improve our demonstration skills to communicate better; we now started off by shouting in hindi “SUNNOO SUNNOO SUNNOO” and that’s where we got the attention we needed. Again we had a fresh start with the act on organ donation, why is it necessary and spoke upon many more things. This way I showed commitment towards the activity, but at some point of time when no one seems to be interested from the crowd, still we tried again and again, which did made it persuasive to many adults. While working in a group we supported each other  by helping in learning the script and got ideas which could help to improve the effect of drama on the local public.

This activity was about engaging yourself with the special kids. They just need a little effort from us to prove they are indeed really special and that’s what I learned from this activity. My friend organised this activity and asked us to participate,

So I thought to input my effort to teach and get them into activities like cricket or solving the puzzles. Being a well educated student it is my responsibility to teach someone who are not so capable and this activity is where I could demonstrate my skills.

There were many difficulties faced while doing this activity, while playing cricket, teaching the kids how to throw a ball was a difficult task too, but I showed my patience as they need time to develop themselves, so at the end they successfully learned and they had a smile on their face. This where you are called as a competent person and you’ve successfully applied skill while taking a challenge to teach someone something. In this activity the biggest challenge faced was, how to teach this kids? because they are somewhere different and they had to be taught in a different manner than others.

My friends have helped me a lot in this activity by teaching me about how to handle these kids and that’s what helped me while working collaboratively. So taking advice from an experienced person has helped me by teaching something relevant and in a way that the kids could understand too. I’ve put all of my effort in this activity because this is something special and different, I committed to stay calm and wanted to teach them about solving puzzles or playing cricket. Which is a very difficult task to do as the whole is different.

Maths-Science Trivia

This activity was a chance to reflect the prior knowledge learnt till grade 10. This was a very different and difficult activity for me to conduct and to make questions for the quiz with managing things for Grade 10 and Grade 9. Till this years we were asked to participate in the quiz and represent our school houses where teachers used to conduct and make questions for us but as we grew up and are in grade 11 a senior year the teachers and the school coordinators decided to let grade 11 and grade 12 make the competition tougher and take part in handling the activity by themselves.

It was a very unique activity to do, because this time we had to make questions and revive our prior learnt lessons to make the best out of what can be done to make a good competition. I also took help from the internet to find out more relevant questions. Everytime, I had to find a different question for both the grades from different topics which has to be tricky, it was very hard.   We had to work in a collaboration with grade 12 and with my classmates. It was my first to make question for the middle years or for the lower grades. I made and gave many suggestion to my teammates and few of them got approved, providing question for them was also a very difficult task too because it had to be easier to understand as they have limited time to guess and making the battle harder.

On the day before the trivia all the questions were organised and then the next day my classmates conducted and in front of a large audience we have to deliver the questions and had to cater the doubts also where we also have to control the audiences by not to disturb or prompt answer to the participant or to support them anyhow as this was a difficult task too. All went well and teachers appreciated the efforts we had put in.

 

Teaching to students has always been a tedious work for someone, while for other it’s passion but at the end they need some rest & that is why we Disha Sarawagi, Khushali Chaliawala and I made a plan to give teacher a while off from their work and give them a treat and happiness which they truly deserve.

It was very important to know what we three people were good at so we could easily focus the strong part and then work efficiently. Being not good at drawing and in art Khushali and Disha took the responsibility to make an art piece for the invitation card, so I started off working on the student replacing teachers where senior most students were going to teach to their juniors and I took the responsibility with the IT handling, in that making groups and assigning works with the classes to the seniors was one of the difficult task, because they have to be briefed properly and no error should be there. Though after seeing the Invitation card I would like to work upon my drawings.

This was the first time I’ve experienced and conducted an event and being the first time new challenges were there which is nowhere similar which I’ve done something before. We had 4 days left to the event and we had to rush everything and had to make a proper schedule for the event day as to add icing to the cake we included dance, drama and band performances presented by the middle year students. Dance and Drama need practices so to present it better new ideas should be inputted so we put ideas of the recent news and for the band performances students played teacher’s favorite songs, so to play that in just 4 days and in that an instrument keyboard which I’ve played for at least 8 years I indulge into the band and gave them chords and improve some mistake that’s where I also developed new skills as I learned some new chords, I felt challenging too, as they had learnt the new types of chords- basically shortcuts for chords, so it was somewhat difficult to communicate but then it was somewhere similar too.     

Planning in 4 days was indeed a very difficult task, as we also had classes and was a working day so to manage, we assigned tasks to each other. I started off working by by handling the student name sheet and assigning them classes. A fixed budget was given to us so we thought of something creative and came up with  photo booth which was the best part for teachers as well senior students where they use props and take pictures. So we bought and made some props for them. As this was my first cas experience so I do have to put all of my effort in it, whatever the work was given, from preparing a sheet, sending out emails to each and every student and making out time for decorations and much more. I was excited to learn new things with the organisers point of view, that how do they manage so I went up to our DP coordinator to learn and apply some things in the CAS experience and as a teacher’s point of view how they see us when they teach us. While working in a group you get more ideas as everyone has different types of experience where some of them could be applied in this activity. Photo booth was something new and everyone enjoyed so by that we could make it more interesting when working collaboratively.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbVCl6wM1og   

This place is situated between Kullu and Manali where we had to stay in a Castle built on the top of one of the Kullu valley where a spectacular view can be seen, both Kullu and Manali town can be noticed, castle constructed in 1460 A.D by Raja Sidh Singh in the middle ages. This castle had a great tourist attraction because it was preserved as it was, it has western architecture of Himalaya and unconfirmed but outstanding stories which is related to horror and Kings daughter.

We started by a train journey from surat to ambala and then to the castle a 8-10 hour journey in bus. When we reached there was a small introduction about the castle and then the next day plan was mentioned. Next day we started with a yoga session and then a walk to the Naggar town on foot where we had to adjust our body temperature and have to adapt to the surrounding because it was in winter and low was about -1 and high was just 7 so this way it was difficult to climatise as surat has a low of 12 in winters and as high as 20 so it was a new challenge for me. Warm clothes were very much required, after a specific intervals our body has to gain a good nutritional food in order to survive and produce heat for the body. This way I started adapting but it was not that fullest. On the 30TH of Dec 15,  Now on this day it was time to do some service and a activity where we have to trek to a village about 4 km uphill a big challenge was infront and we had to cross over it it was a very tough walk and I cheered the ones who is not regular with this and they cheered me that you can do it too as it wasn’t routine for me too, the one who very much inspired me is the locals- they had their small 3-4 years old children carrying buckets filled with water which is heavy and they climbed at a speed where after 2 or 3 second I couldn’t even see them, this was it made my mind to think that “I could complete it too”. On the way we had packaged food which had a plastic covering to not to harm any people, animals I thought of putting it in my bag which will not cause any disturbance to the nature and when I go back to the hotel I would throw it in a dustbin;After reaching up there we came to know about the architecture, culture and the way- how and who they believe in god. We saw a temple where it was not allowed to touch anything around it like trees and the walls of the temple we were just allowed to have a walk and see the structure where our guide belonged to that particular area it was easy to understand and he conveyed it very easily it was my first time to listen to anything related to not to touch their item which will cause them to create a hatred towards the tourist. Before coming back to Castle I bought local products which are home made or are there to sell in order to let them earn money which gave me a joyful experiences, products like- Dried apples, Safrron, Garlic, Shawls and many more which is famous and they sell it as a souvenir. On the 31st we had a great morning where I had to learn skiing which i have never done it before it was again a new challenge for me because it needed balancing and by wearing so many layers of clothes it wasn’t easy to move at all. After few rounds still it was not a good going but I somehow learn to do the basics of the basics.

It was new years night and we all were tired so there was a little celebration and it was against the local peoples ethics not to play loud music and do any party so we respected that and slept for that night and thinking about the other day. 1ST JAN morning we visited the Manali city where there’s more tourist attraction from all over the world.

Later in the evening we left for our journey back to surat. And definitely I brought back tons of memories with me back to Surat, where teachers and classmates helped me a lot with their cheering and having fun with them.

Maker’s Space – Foosball Table

Making something using tools and innovative that is all I wanted, and school had offered this to us. So we three Vitan Patel, Pranjal Bhansali and I, we wanted it to be something where a user could enjoy and the product should be fun too. We went through about 1000’s of ideas on the internet still we didn’t find anything interesting as it was something which was already. Then we decided to put forward some ideas which we want in our project.

 

• it should be very attractive.
• It should be filled with a lot of fun.
• Anybody could play with it and they should enjoy it most.
• Something innovative, by improving the existing product and making it more interesting.
• We decided to not make our project which is very easy to build as we wouldn’t be learning anything new so we decided to do something with carpentry as this could be used as a survival skills as well as sometime later it could be useful in the future and is fun too.

So we saw a foosball table and one of my fellow memeber told that, somewhere there is a Foosball world championship taking place, that way we came to knew that it an official sport too. But foosball are small in size and only 4 players could play it, then we came up with increase in the size of the table as well as the number of players- 8, this thing was great for a party fun. The main objective of this project is learn about learning some new skills which is commonly used but still no one is well aware like carpentry looks easy but it was not.

We started working on our designs from four months prior to the date of exhibition which was on 6 feb 2016 .We thought of only using wood and acrylic to make the base and the boundary transparent, which will make its appearance the most different and out of the world idea. We pledged to give our 100% in the work which will reflect upon the outcome of our activity. From end of december we finalised our project got it approved and ordered basic materials like Wood and acrylic. So leaving everyday routine and balancing the studies to do and the work on this project was a new experience for me by showing determination towards the making of this table.

We had never carved or tried our hands on carpentry before, this was my first time on learning wood cutting and giving it a nice shape. We asked our advisor to give a helping hand to this project, So we learned from a skilled carpenter from school itself, how to cut a wood where we thought it would be easy and there are machines to help, so we thought it would be not that difficult but when we tried our hands on the machine it turned out to be the most difficult part because the machines looked small, but to control the wood saw machine was at times the hardest part, keeping in mind – safety has to be there because it could lead to major injuries. We had to work a lot on the project. We started from buying accessories, despite we have to study we still managed to balance and went out looking for these things like: electrical wires, led’s and sensors for the goal as we thought when a goal is scored, the light gate sensor will work and the led’s would light up, so we went out in search of these things in the list we thought to stick on the budget for the accessories for under Rs.1500, we divided our work and I went in the search for led’s and drive and wire, one partner went for the foosball ball and other for the light-gate sensor. Few things were available in the market and some were not. But we managed with other things and as per time constraint we compromised some things and though to add the features later.  

We faced many challenges during execution, because materials ordered by school for us were not a good quality and some materials which we expected, like rods were having different lengths or some part would take more time to be cut, shape and to be finished. This way we had to speed up our work and wanted to complete it on time. We decided to come every early mornings and stay late evening to make the unique table which is not just a table but a piece of art which is very different. Dividing work in a group of 3 made our job easier. As one would work upon the acrylic cutting one on wood and other on polishing and joining all parts together and nailing it.

Execution was the most difficult stage, we faced many obstacles during our making. One week was left for the AS exhibition and we were still having many troubles regarding the players, we decided to make 3D printed players, but running out of time, one 3d players takes about 4-6 hours, so we can’t afford to make players during school time. We decided an alternative where one team will be made from discarded wood and that way we could reduce the use of plastic and wood could be attractive to, so we chose the abandoned wood pieces available in school carpentry workshop.One day before the exhibition, we finished gluing everything and fixed the whole table, and polished it. “Looks Spectacular” we all said. On the day of presentation: the foosball table looked stunning and audience came, where they enjoyed playing it and it was the most eye catching thing among all the other projects. And our work finally pays off!   

 

The first experience of CAS trip was exciting. This trip was a jollification, adventurous and a place where we have never been to. This trip was much more different then I had in my entire life, in this trip we were introduced to the newly artificial forest, made by indian government.

Learning outcome 2: Planting hundreds of samplings is definitely not a piece of a cake. Small plants had to be planted in the hole which was previously made by the local workers, it was very hard to just put that one plant in the dug because the plant was very delicate one mishandling, even one crack on the mud could lead to breakage of the whole sample. It was that delicate. So there I learned how to correctly handle the sample, after 2-3 breakage it turned out an to be not so hard task.

Learning outcome 5: As this activity is so much relating to gardening which many people do it at their houses, working in team had a benefit of sharing ideas and techniques to make the work easier and in team dividing the work- one for bringing the samples, another for planting and the last one to pour mud over the plant giving a finishing. I reminisce on part where we had to dig and take mud from one place to another using a tool, this is where I had a skill to use the tool properly and effectively.

 

Learning outcome 6: deforestation, a major cause of rise in greenhouse gasses where Carbon dioxide a leading source of rise in earth temperature, To work upon this we planted the trees to reduce the levels of harmful gasses which will help millions of people in the future. The plastic taken out from the sample was put in a particular place which is specially made for it so by this I took an appropriate decision not to harm the planet.