Recently, our students have been participating in the Out of Eden Learn Project. Here is a blurb about it from their website:
Out of Eden Learn is a unique online learning community designed to accompany Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk. Through Out of Eden Learn, students from around the world can engage in Paul’s journey and all that it represents. They explore their own neighbourhoods, investigate contemporary global issues, and reflect on how they as individuals fit into a broader geographical and historical context. In addition, they share their perspectives and interact with one another on an exciting digital platform that uses social media as a springboard for deep, meaningful learning. The goal is to ignite students’ interest in the wider world and support them to become more informed, thoughtful, and engaged “global citizens.”
Out of Eden Learn is an initiative of Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in collaboration with Paul Salopek.
As part of the project our students will complete six footsteps. We have completed the second one in which students took a walk around their neighbourhood and drew a map of what they had observed. A sampling of these can be seen below. They also interviewed their parents or neighbours and wrote stories to accompany the maps. By engaging in the slow journalism that Paul has modelled, they are able to make observations and, hopefully, connections to their environment. I have included a few of the stories as well.
Example #1: Luis
One afternoon, there was a strong wind so we decided to go to the beach and fly my kite. We went outside with our bikes and slowly drove to the beach. the ride took about two minutes and we passed many plots that were empty or under construction. As we neared the sea, the breeze increased and became a strong wind, coming from the sea and going into the land. As we unpacked the kite, it already strained and fought to be free. After some preparation, we granted this wish by letting it fly free and the spool spinning out. High, higher, higher the kite flew. Higher than ever before! The wind tugged, pulled and played with the black triangle. The spool was out, so the kite flew at around 100 meters above the sea! There the wind held the wonderful kite, flying it stable. All other times that we had flown it, it always bucked up and down like a wild pony but here it flew very calm. Sadly, we had to reel it in after some time as we wanted to go home. The black shape slowly descended. This took forever but finally it fell down to the ground. Following this, we carefully packed the beauty onto our cycles and swiftly cycled back home. At home, my mother waited for us with a nice dinner and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our rabbits and ducks. I hope we do this again and often as it was a lot of fun.
I have lived in this house since summer 2013. I came from Malaysia and now I am living in India for three years. My house is painted white and has a huge garden. In this garden, we have one area of grass where we play soccer. We also have two ducks that walk around freely, two rabbits in an enclosure, two love birds in a cage and 14 fish swimming in an enclosure to separate them from the ducks. I love my house as it has a big garden and a wonderful pool. Also, it only takes two minutes to go to the sea side and the beach is wonderful. My neighbourhood is very calm and I enjoy every minute of being there.
Example #2: Luca
Example #3 Rahul
I live in an apartment surrounded by many trees around the neighbourhood. Not much construction goes on and the it’s usually pretty quiet. Many people take their dogs for walks including my family and I. I live very close to the beach so I could go to the beach any time I want. The beach is only 3 minutes away from my house. There are about 5 churches and 1 temple nearby. In the evening, a nice breeze from the sea blows across making it very pleasant. A lot of planes fly over the neighbourhood. In my apartment complex, I have 3 friends. Almost every evening, we play soccer down in the compound.
The journey to my school normally takes about 10 minutes in the morning. In the evening, it’s a whole nother story. It could take up to 40 minutes in the evening. There is so much traffic from people coming back from work. I have lived in my apartment since I came to Chennai which was about 1 year ago. I think I won’t move at all for the time that I live in Chennai. I really like my neighbourhood a lot.
Out of Eden Learn is a unique online learning community designed to accompany Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk. Through Out of Eden Learn, students from around the world can engage in Paul’s journey and all that it represents. They explore their own neighbourhoods, investigate contemporary global issues, and reflect on how they as individuals fit into a broader geographical and historical context. In addition, they share their perspectives and interact with one another on an exciting digital platform that uses social media as a springboard for deep, meaningful learning. The goal is to ignite students’ interest in the wider world and support them to become more informed, thoughtful, and engaged “global citizens.”
Out of Eden Learn is an initiative of Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in collaboration with Paul Salopek.
As part of the project our students will complete six footsteps. We have completed the second one in which students took a walk around their neighbourhood and drew a map of what they had observed. A sampling of these can be seen below. They also interviewed their parents or neighbours and wrote stories to accompany the maps. By engaging in the slow journalism that Paul has modelled, they are able to make observations and, hopefully, connections to their environment. I have included a few of the stories as well.
Example #1: Luis
Kite Flying
One afternoon, there was a strong wind so we decided to go to the beach and fly my kite. We went outside with our bikes and slowly drove to the beach. the ride took about two minutes and we passed many plots that were empty or under construction. As we neared the sea, the breeze increased and became a strong wind, coming from the sea and going into the land. As we unpacked the kite, it already strained and fought to be free. After some preparation, we granted this wish by letting it fly free and the spool spinning out. High, higher, higher the kite flew. Higher than ever before! The wind tugged, pulled and played with the black triangle. The spool was out, so the kite flew at around 100 meters above the sea! There the wind held the wonderful kite, flying it stable. All other times that we had flown it, it always bucked up and down like a wild pony but here it flew very calm. Sadly, we had to reel it in after some time as we wanted to go home. The black shape slowly descended. This took forever but finally it fell down to the ground. Following this, we carefully packed the beauty onto our cycles and swiftly cycled back home. At home, my mother waited for us with a nice dinner and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our rabbits and ducks. I hope we do this again and often as it was a lot of fun.
I have lived in this house since summer 2013. I came from Malaysia and now I am living in India for three years. My house is painted white and has a huge garden. In this garden, we have one area of grass where we play soccer. We also have two ducks that walk around freely, two rabbits in an enclosure, two love birds in a cage and 14 fish swimming in an enclosure to separate them from the ducks. I love my house as it has a big garden and a wonderful pool. Also, it only takes two minutes to go to the sea side and the beach is wonderful. My neighbourhood is very calm and I enjoy every minute of being there.
Example #2: Luca
- I have lived here since 2012
- We have a great guard dog outside the gate named Domy.
- I live in Injambakkam.
- I live next to Hot Kitchen
- They plan to pave our road
- They plan to instal solar-powered street lights on our road.
- To the East is the Bay of Bengal and in the North end of our house we have a Wilvam Tree or Kubar Tree
- Wilvam/Kubar Trees belong to Lord Shiva
- When we open the kitchen door we see a Thulasi Leaf Plant, this plant belongs to Lord Vishnu
- In our house we have Sandhana Vathana Marble. In the summer season, it gets very hot outside but inside we feel cool and chilly.
- The main road to our house is privately owned by one man.
- All the residents on our street need to pay a one time fee to the owner of the street to use the access.
- At the end of our road, there is a tennis court being built by a professional tennis player but was stopped due to the owner of the road disapproving of the dump trucks using the road.
- The entire land around us is owned by one family.
Example #3 Rahul
I live in an apartment surrounded by many trees around the neighbourhood. Not much construction goes on and the it’s usually pretty quiet. Many people take their dogs for walks including my family and I. I live very close to the beach so I could go to the beach any time I want. The beach is only 3 minutes away from my house. There are about 5 churches and 1 temple nearby. In the evening, a nice breeze from the sea blows across making it very pleasant. A lot of planes fly over the neighbourhood. In my apartment complex, I have 3 friends. Almost every evening, we play soccer down in the compound.
The journey to my school normally takes about 10 minutes in the morning. In the evening, it’s a whole nother story. It could take up to 40 minutes in the evening. There is so much traffic from people coming back from work. I have lived in my apartment since I came to Chennai which was about 1 year ago. I think I won’t move at all for the time that I live in Chennai. I really like my neighbourhood a lot.
Other Examples of Maps
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