Kartee has been working closely with various schools in Pune for the past few years. During the pandemic, we learned from the schools that they were struggling to generate quality digital content as that was something they had no expertise in.

Most teachers were typing out content from textbooks and pasting images to go with it. This was true of many old and reputed schools as well. This kind of online material is, simply put, boring. And with no physical engagement, no body language cues from the teacher, and plenty of other distractions in their own rooms, most kids tuned out, much to the dismay of their teachers and their parents.

Digital Content for Teachers

As a design firm, we could see that we could drastically improve the content and the presentation. We also worked with the approach that we had to empower the teachers and enable them to provide an effective and engaging learning experience.

The knottier problem with the digital lessons that we had to tackle was the content itself. It was hard to overlook that schooling methods and textbook material remained just as disturbingly obscure as they had been 30 years ago. This was brought home to me not just as a business person but as a parent as well.

Revisiting the Textbook

The Kartee team had some brainstorming sessions about how and what we were looking to achieve and we began in earnest, scanning textbooks that the schools prescribed. We soon realized that many of the textbooks were deeply unsatisfactory and oftentimes the content was plain insensible.

Take for example this paragraph from a Class 7 General Science book:

This excerpt is from a lesson on Wind, Storms and Cyclones. When we came across such material, all we could do was cringe. What is anyone, let alone a child, supposed to understand anything from this? Unfortunately, all that our schooling system expects from the child is to “know” the answer.

Why does air exert pressure? Why does air move? What is low pressure? What is high pressure?

There are so many questions that need to be explored first. Physics is an intangible abstract science and requires so much questioning, counter-questioning and a lot of reflection.  The lesson introduces the important concept of air pressure with a para heading “Air exerts pressure”. This is given as a statement of fact and there is absolutely no explanation for why? Nor is any attempt made to get the student thinking and asking questions. The concept of “air exerts pressure” is demonstrated with an annoyingly obtuse experiment in the textbook which simply re-iterates – “See, we told you air exerts pressure!”

Though it meant taking on a lot more than we had bargained for, we as a team decided to re-write the content and we did this for all the Sciences, Maths as well as Civics presentations that we designed.

While studying the material for the digital content that Kartee designed, it became clear to us that almost everything needed to be scratched deeper and explained better. While discussing air pressure, there are many everyday examples that can be used to explain core concepts. Take for example the concept of pressure cookers that all children can relate to. 

The Science of Pressure Cookers

Most people would think (I did) that a pressure cooker cooks because of the increase in air pressure inside it. That is only a partial understanding. What happens because of the increased air pressure is that the boiling point of water increases – meaning that it takes a higher temperature to boil water. Instead of boiling at 100 degrees Celsius, it boils at somewhere close to 121 degrees. That is how rice or whatever cooks faster. This is just a quick explanation but there is deeper science for kids to understand – how does the pressure increase? how does increased pressure affect the boiling point?  And what happens to the boiling point if we don’t use the cooker whistle? Also, how does a higher boiling point mean faster cooking?  See, that’s the point. A teacher should ideally spend a lesson discussing just pressure cookers!

Balloons  – demonstration of air pressure

Balloons are a great tool to demonstrate concepts of air pressure. Blow up a balloon with your mouth as much as you can. Then hold the balloon’s mouth closed with your fingers. Release. The air inside gushes out. Why?

When you blew air into the balloon and you pushed it in in so much quantity, you actually expanded the balloon – you put in too much air into too small a space. How does that affect pressure? Suppose you put in a large crowd of kids in a small classroom. There are a lot of kids (air molecules) that are pushing against each other and against the sides of the classroom (balloon). This creates an area of high pressure inside the classroom (balloon). When you release, air rushes out to balance the pressure inside and outside.

Kids of all ages can deepen their understanding with discussion and exploration if only the teaching methodology provided that kind of opportunity.

For instance, in the above experiment,  if you replace the balloon with a bottle, what do you experience? What if you attach a balloon to the mouth of a bottle(from inside) and then blow? Will the balloon expand inside the bottle? If not, why not?

Re-thinking Education

While in-person learning and teaching should continue to be the primary form of education, there is no doubt that there is great scope to improve the quality of learning. This is evident from the rise in ed-tech companies which understand the dissatisfaction of parents.  Just as the pandemic has given a fillip to the ed-tech companies, so has it given schools an opportunity to re-think schooling.

Educators and teachers need to embrace “digital” and use it to complement old-school techniques, and not as a stop-gap arrangement before they go back to the classroom. Tailored digital content will be the easiest way for schools to allow for deeper exploration of subjects. We may then begin to see more children engaging positively and with intellectual curiosity towards academics.

— Sangeeta Oak is the Founder and CEO of Kartee