The Principal and the teachers at the Spark School, Mahanad are encouraged to continue to learn, and to improve their capacity to serve as effective educators. In India, educational tours are accepted as an essential part of education. So, this year the Spark School organized an educational tour for the students of class V to X on 1st December, 2017 to Kolkata. The trip highlighted two important places of Kolkata – The Indian Museum & the Birla Planetarium.
A total of 51 students & 6 teachers involved in the trip. We started our journey at 7 am from the school premises. The main objective of this trip was to introduce children to museum because museums open up a world of imagination, exploration & can develop higher critical & creative thinking skills, which are integral to future success.
Firstly, we visited to Indian Museum which is a multipurpose & multi – disciplinary institution of national importance.
It is considered to ninth oldest regular museum of the world. The pupils enjoyed to see the galleries of Art, Archaeology, Textile, Anthropology, Geology, Numismatic, Paleontological and Mask Gallery. The children thoroughly enjoyed the visit and were mesmerized to see the four thousand year old mummy in the Egyptian gallery. The gigantic head of a Stegodon Ganesha, with its 10 feet long tusks, literally flabbergasted the students.
Then, our next visit was M.P.Birla Planetarium the first & the largest planetarium in India. Everyday several of interesting & informative shows are conducted for the visitors. The shows comprises of ‘ Zodiac Signs & Stars ‘ , ‘journey to Antarctica’ & ‘ New view of the solar system ‘. We were enthralled & allured by the spectacular shows of constellations, zodiac patterns of the sky and space probes. A visit to a planetarium is sure to set the heart racing of any science enthusiast. The children enjoyed very much as it is an unexampled centre of science , communication & environment & provides information about our solar system , galaxies , life span of stars , space , planets & other heavenly bodies through the Carl Zeiss Hybrid Projection System, powered with an Opto-mechanical projector produced a unique depiction of the cosmos . We witnessed a never – seen- before visual experience. It provides vivid & colourful images celestial objects, events & also a depiction of the night’s sky as seen by a human eye.
Finally around 6.30 pm we returned back to our school. Last but not the least, the students enjoyed the trip very much & had an incomparable experience.