Workshop
Tinkering with monks: chain reaction video
The final project of the workshop, on video. We set the whole contraption up and ran it twice. This video is a combination of both runs, as it was difficult to get all the shots in one run. It was hard to fight my way through the monks crowding their contraptions and cheering them on!
Some highlights include: water being used to complete a circuit; a soccer match between the US and Tibet, an elephant-powered ball-kicking mechanism; hand-made gears; a monk slapping a Chinese [cringe!]; a solar system; a monk being run over by a rickshaw; suicidal penguin switch; the Tibet express bringing Tibetans back to a free country; a rubber-band twang switch; 30 joyful and beautiful monks!
You can read more about this activity in these posts.
Tinkering with monks: light exploration video
Once again, two days of exploring light, reflections, mylar, mechanical movement, and caustics exemplified by one particularly playful and delightful final contraption. It’s a disco light!
You can read more about this activity in these posts.
Tinkering with monks: cardboard automata video
Three days of tinkering with Tibetan monks condensed in three minutes of video. Enjoy!
You can read all about the cardboard automata activity, as we implemented with with the monks, in these posts.
Closing discussion
Even the best workshops, sadly, have to come to an end sooner or later. Setting off the chain reaction machine marked the culmination and final act of 10 days of work with some inspiring and dedicated students. On our last day in Sarnath, hours before getting on a plane back to Delhi, we convened the monks one last time.
For this final discussion with the group we asked them to record their own thoughts about the following three discussion prompts.
- What did you notice about this method of teaching science?
- What did you notice about your personal learning experience?
- What did you notice about the other learners around you and their projects?
They discussed their observations and thoughts in table groups of 6-8, then summarized the table discussions with us as a large group. As this was clearly our parting meeting, their tone became a little more formal than usual, and almost reverential: when people spoke, they got up and gave short but well-formulated “speeches”, rather than informal comments. We couldn’t tell whether this was a function of their innate respect for teachers, or because of the occasion of a goodbye. Whatever the case, you might find the following quotes to be a little more formal in tone than usual!
Here are some of the things that they discussed.
What did you notice about this method of teaching science?
“Your full engagement in the activities as teachers, and your encouragement, allowed us to learn more things, and learn a lot, from beginning to end.”
“In these ten days we learned a lot about mechanisms, how things work, and where to find them, so we are ready for our future, for how to study these things. This is, of course, your
[the teachers'] cup of tea, so your full support helped guide us along the right path for the future. We really want to thank you very much for this wonderful, supportive teaching.”“We appreciate how fully prepared you were to teach us from the beginning. You come to the class prepared with everything for us to start and learn about these things.”
“This method of teaching may not work for everybody, but for me it is the best thing to gave me knowledge. For example, I learned there is an electric resistance in water. I first thought there was no electric resistance, so Karen and I went to the tea room and tested the water and found the resistance. This little experiment, and what I ultimately did with it, changed my knowledge of resistance forever.”
“One important thing about this teaching is that everyone has done something. We had a good experience that we will not forget for some time. Normally, somebody tells us about the knowledge that we should learn, but here we practically constructed something so when we go to our monasteries we can teach the other monks about this way of learning things.”
What did you notice about your personal learning experience?
“Within these ten days, a relatively short period of time, we learned a lot. I would say we learned nearly 70 per cent of what there is to know about machines and mechanics. If the younger monks would come across this workshop earlier in life I would say they would learn 100 per cent, nearly complete.”
“This knowledge is so big, like the ocean, and our boat is so small, that we feel we learned a great amount with you.”
“I found in myself that I first plan something to do, then when I am not much convinced about the plan I tend to give up. The activities of the workshop didn’t let me work like this, because there wasn’t much time and I needed to work regardless of my initial plan. I found that everything didn’t work out perfectly, but I found that if you start working and experimenting, your project will show you another way, or a solution.”
What did you notice about the other learners around you and their projects?
“To learn from other people, and from other groups, to see what they are doing and how they are making things, and taking ideas from other people, this is one really important technique to learn about things.”
“You gave us the freedom to make and do what we want, you didn’t give us resistance, and that allowed our ideas and experiments to flow open wider.”
“These activities supported all of our intellects, based on our individual capacities. Some of us are very intelligent, and some not so intelligent
[laughter].”Closing comments
“I would like to say thank you very much for coming here, and doing these things. As a Tibetan, this comes from our hearts when we say thank you for our time together. I would also like to give my respect for all of the teachers for your support of the Tibetan monks.”
Chain reaction finale
We were overjoyed and delighted that, in addition to the monks, a number of local children took time off their bicycle-riding and kite-flying to attend the projection. We couldn’t wish for a better end to 10 magical workshop days.
