Father's Day Celebration

On the occasion of Father’s day, the little angels of the school enjoyed thoroughly with their dear fathers. Where the children expressed their love through speech, giving away the greeting cards and by dancing to the tunes of “Dad you're my super hero”, they enjoyed playing games too. It was a sheer delight to witness the fun and the spirits with which “the dads “participated in the games…hopping like a Kangaroo holding their kids, penguin walk with the kids and doing push-ups with kids on their back.

Here are the pictures of event. Enjoy!

-Uma Tenneti

First Day at School

The first day at school is always filled with anxiety and excitement for parents, students and teachers alike. There are mixed emotions everywhere as this day marks a huge milestone in the child’s life. As teachers, it is of utmost importance to incorporate ideas to help ease first day jitters and start the school year off on the right track. 

We geared up for the grand welcoming of the pre-primary students here at Sancta Maria International School when school reopens on June 8^th, 2015.

The day was carefully planned by sending out learning outcomes and day plans to the parents ahead of time. Welcome calls were made by the class teachers to introduce themselves to the parents. Learning outcomes for the term and day plan for the week ahead were shared with the parents. Classroom supplies, teaching material, classroom decor, books and folders on shelves- made sure everything has its place and is in perfect order. It shows when we are well rested, relaxed and ready to kick start the New Year. Basically, it also helps the kids to stay calm and focused.

Decoration is the big word for the week or perhaps the month ahead. We decorated our windows, doors, corridors, classroom boards - birthdays, language, numeric sense, class teacher’s board. The windows were adorned with themes ranging from garden to good manners. Since the boards will stay up for most of the school year, some of the material was laminated so they don’t tear and fade. Every little detail of the pictures was carefully chosen to suit the needs of the child - colour combinations, texture, font size, originality, creativity and uniqueness.

The first day of the school is busy, busy, and busy! Learning the names, faces, parents and personalities of all the students on the class list is essential. You must teach routines and procedures. You need to hold the attention of a roomful of active, excited little minds. New faces will show up that you will have to add to the class list.

 On the first day of school and the week to follow, few factors are more crucial than being prepared. It is more of a challenge than a regular job. It is the time for the teachers to set their standards and expectations for the rest of the year. Since many of the students are unable to read when they start pre-primary, it is wise enough to provide them with visuals.

Then arrived the big day after much anticipation. The day at Nursery and PP1 was a mélange of happy faces and kids trying to overcome their separation anxiety. The ambience of the classroom was chosen to mesmerize the tiny tots with balloons, puppets, puzzles, blocks, soft toys and more. Extended play times at the swings and soft gym were introduced to help the kids settle down. The extra set of hands used the time to click pictures, save and share them with those apprehensive parents waiting home to know their child’s first day at school.

The day at PP2 was filled with more of elated faces. The kids were happy to see their friends after enjoying two full months of holidays. For the newly admitted children, it was an overwhelming day learning to make friends, meet the teachers and adapt to the new environment.

 

Above all, the effort goes a long way to give a rich experience for the children when they step in to the world of school. They all carry these memories lifelong and to one day write a middle school essay or may be share a memento in their school reunions long after they have grown up to be achievers and leaders beyond the expectations of their parents and teachers.

 - Kamala Deepthi

The Story of Serendipity

Stories of scientific discovery abound with lucky coincidences. It's true that serendipity and good fortune are often cited as key factors in making scientific innovations. But look closer. Even when scientists feel that they just got lucky — like Newton being hit on the head with his proverbial apple — the steps leading to a new finding or idea often tell a different story. It takes more than being in the right place, at the right time, to make a serendipitous discovery. Here are a few important attributes of scientists who turned a lucky break into a breakthrough:

Background Knowledge

It's not a myth that scientists spend a lot of time studying. It takes a well-prepared mind to recognize a breakthrough. Many "serendipitous" discoveries take place only because the discoverer happened to have specialized background knowledge. For example, a second population of living coelacanths (a rare type of fish that closely resembles fossils from 400 Million years ago) was discovered in 1997 when a chance sighting happened to be made by a student of marine biology. The graduate student, Mark Erdmann, was wandering through an Indonesian fish market with his wife, Arnaz Mehta Erdmann, on their honeymoon, when she pointed out a strange-looking fish. He immediately recognized it as a coelacanth — and as a potentially important scientific discovery. Erdmann did "get lucky" but he was certainly helped along by his wife's discerning eye and his training in marine biology.

Mark Erdmann and his wife were startled to spot a coelacanth while walking through a Sulawesi fish market.

An Inquisitive Mind

Surprising or anomalous results sometimes stimulate new discoveries, but it takes a scientific perspective to look beyond an anomaly and see it as something worth following up. Wilhelm Roentgen's 1895 discovery of the X-ray started with a serendipitous observation, but explaining it required careful study. Working by himself in the lab, Roentgen was trying to make electrons pass through air, when he noticed that with a high charge, his vacuum tube caused a screen all the way across his lab to light up. He wasn't the first to see these strange effects — at least two other researchers had noticed them earlier, but they had not investigated them further. Roentgen, however, thought that these effects were worth studying. He carefully documented many different aspects of the new rays, and then published his work to encourage ongoing research. Roentgen's initial observation was certainly serendipitous, but it was his subsequent investigation of the anomaly that turned it into a groundbreaking discovery.

An X-ray of Wilhelm Roentgen's wife's hand. Objects that cannot be penetrated by X-rays appear as solid black.

Creative Thinking

Sometimes, serendipity doesn't come from being the first to see something, but from being the first to see it in a new way. While working for the Raytheon Company, Percy Spencer noticed that microwaves from the radar set he was working on had melted the candy bar in his pocket. He wasn't the first person to notice that microwaves generate heat, but he was the first person to think of using this heat to cook food. He received a patent for his idea in 1950, and Raytheon developed the idea for commercial and industrial use. In a sign of things to come, popcorn was the first thing Spencer and his colleagues cooked with microwaves — it appears in the illustration from his patent! Spencer’s creative thinking turned a routine observation into a technological breakthrough.

The illustration of Percy Spencer's microwave device from his patent documents.

The Right Tools

New technologies often allow us to study things in ways that weren't possible in the past. The first researchers to take advantage of a new technology often get "lucky" in making exciting new discoveries. One such discovery took place in the 1960s when a sensitive antenna, developed to communicate with satellites, became available for research use. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson decided to use the antenna as a radio telescope to study low levels of radio waves in outer space. They knew that many celestial bodies — from stars to galaxies — emit radiation that corresponds to their temperatures, but decided to try and see whether any waves emanated from places where there were no stars. Penzias and Wilson didn't expect to find much, but to their surprise, the telescope picked up radio waves in large amounts! These waves corresponded to temperatures indicating that space was about four degrees higher than previously thought. Theoretical physicists later recognized this as leftover warmth from the Big Bang itself — a discovery that can certainly be attributed to Penzias and Wilson, but also to the new technology they had at their disposal.

The super-sensitive radio telescope used by Penzias and Wilson that detected leftover warmth from the Big Bang.

Good timing

Important discoveries are often made simultaneously by different people, suggesting that the field is ripe for a new idea. Perhaps the pieces of a new theory are available in different scientific publications, just waiting for someone to put them together or perhaps new observations seem to independently point toward a unifying principle. The theory of evolution by natural selection may have been one of these ideas. Although Charles Darwin's notes on evolution extend back to the late 1830s, Alfred Russell Wallace developed some of the same key ideas independently. Both drew on relatively recent advances in geology and economics, applying ideas from other fields to develop a new theory of their own. In the end, they agreed to share credit for the idea and jointly presented papers on evolution to London's Royal Society. Darwin and Wallace were certainly great thinkers of their own accord, but good timing may have contributed to their conceptual breakthrough as well.

-Reshu and Sandhya

Women's Day Celebration!

Every year the world has set aside a day to celebrate the woman. We are forced to ask the question, who is a woman? I define a woman simply as:

W – WONDERFUL MOTHER
O – OUTSTANDING FRIEND
M – MARVELLOUS DAUGHTER
A – ADORABLE SISTER
N – NICEST GIFT TO CHILDREN FROM GOD.

Women are great to have and to be. Without them we won’t have got some of the great leaders we have today and even us.

There is an English saying that goes “behind a successful man there is a woman”. This saying sums it up all. But there is something on this my definition of a woman that I want us to look at. The W and the N. This essentially tells us that a woman is also a mother.

I would add parallelly that behind any successful leader there is mother. Mothers have always given impact to great leaders and to society. They mold and carve out society and its leaders. They are the true leaders. It does not surprise me that the vast majority of calls that I receive from my children’s home are from their mothers. Mothers have this instinctive quality to lead children. When I was a kid, I once asked my mother why I studied arithmetic. She said I should look everywhere. Do I see triangles or not? Do I see other shapes too? Do I see numbers in money?  Do I want to be cheated by my siblings when they have to share “pieces of fried chicken” amongst us? I see this response valid to date. It actually lead me to love mathematics and science. Such is the response of a leader. Such is the response of a mother. I would like to tell you a story on the importance of having a mother:

The story starts when a boy meets his mother crying…

Why are you crying, a young boy once asked his Mom one day?

"Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said.

His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will, but that's O.K.".......

Later the little boy asked his father,
"Why does Mom seem to cry for no reason?".
"All women cry for no reason," was all his Dad could say......

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God and when God got back to him, he asked "God, why do women cry so easily?"

GOD answered.... ..

"When I made woman,
I decided she had to be special.
I made her shoulders
strong enough to carry
the weight of the world, yet,
made her arms gentle enough to give comfort...

I gave her the inner strength
to endure childbirth
and the rejection
that many times will come
even from her own children.

I gave her a hardness
that allows her
to keep going and take care
of her family and friends,
even when everyone else gives up, through sickness and fatigue without
complaining. ...

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances. Even when her child has hurt her badly....

She has the very special power to make a child's boo-boo feel better and to quell a teenager's anxieties and fears....

I gave her strength to care for her husband, despite faults and I fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart....

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. ...

For all of this hard work,
I also gave her a tear to shed.
It is hers to use
whenever needed and !
it is her only weakness....
When you see her cry,
tell her how much you love her, and all she does for everyone, and even though she may still cry, you will have made her heart feel good.

She is special!

Each day is a mountain that must be climbed; with courage each step gets easier. and that courage is Provided by MOTHER...

Love your Mother Always and keep her Smiling

It was therefore not out of place that our pre-primary Sancta-Marians decided to convert the celebration of the day of the woman to a celebration of the day of their mothers.

It was a day full of fun for our small ones. You could see the smiles on their faces as each of them held their mothers and gently negotiated their way to the open amphi-theatre. They happily danced and the occasion was graced with their smiles and fanfare. All the mothers were present. It was indeed a day for our small ones to be grateful to the women who became their mothers. 

-Mr.Elvis Tachu and Ms. Kavita 

A 'Rock'ing Day!

The morning of 27 February started in a different way for the Sancta Marians. As per the routine we have an assembly in our grand Open Air Theatre every Friday. But, on 27 February which was Friday, it was different. All the students were heading towards the old Dining area, and for what? It was for an interesting guest lecture by a grandparent of one of our students, Mr.Ramchander Rao Divi. Mr.Rao graduated from Andhra University, has done his PG from IIT Roorkee and PCH from University of Toranto.

He is a professor of Geology at the University of Kuwait. He has taught at various universities across Saudi Arabia and India.  

For the young students of Sancta Maria, he did an interesting presentation on Minerals and types of rocks. The students were full of curiosity and asked a lot of questions to Mr. Rao. To his surprise, a lot of 2 and 3 graders answered his questions which were of advanced levels. The USP of the presentation was a collection of different rocks that he got with him. He showed us a fossilized bee, estimated age of the same being 15 million years.
Overall, it was an interesting session for the students and they could not keep themselves from discussing about the session for the rest of the day.

-Raksha Lapasya and Letitia 

Sports Day- A Day for All

A holistic education is one which allows the children to develop all their faculties that place sports and other extra-curricular activities at par with academics. This is especially true in the early years of education, where hand and eye co-ordination, motor skills are of paramount importance.

The Annual Sancta Marian Pre-Primary Sports Day that was held on January 24^th, 2015 was aimed at demonstrating the importance of sports in a child’s life. From the Tiny Toddlers of Nursery to the Champions and All Rounders of PP2, all the students of the pre-primary section put together a great show, inviting much cheer from the audience.

The Sports Day began with a walk past by the students holding smiley placards. The nursery students released the balloons as a symbol of declaring the meet open. The walk past was followed by circuit training, which included zig-zig running, jumping hurdles, crawling through the tunnels. These circuit training activities were designed to increase body strength by using high-intensity aerobics. They also are known to improve ocular control, along with concentration levels. Body balancing was another activity our students pulled without ease. The students have been trained to perform these activities throughout the academic year.

To invite audience participation, parents and some daring grand-parents were called upon to participate in a couple race which proved to be a great success. The students also showed off their athletic skills in various races including hurdle jumps and backward racing.  A stunning cheerleading drill, performed by the students of PP2, was waiting to excite the senses of the audience at the end of the day’s events. Colours and gaiety were not the show-stoppers, but our lovely students were.

All our little champions were rewarded with medals and certificates, by a handful of pre-primary parents who had been with us for the longest time. They put together a great feast for the eyes, and won over many a heart at the end of the day.

Science in Post-Independence India

When the World War II ended in 1945, Germany, Italy and Japan lost and France was badly shaken. Even Britain had suffered tremendous losses and its economy was almost ruined. Thus, the colonial powers which had ruled the world and spread poverty, hunger and disease everywhere, were in no position to suppress people anywhere any more. The constant struggle for freedom in the colonial countries had also reached a high pitch. The result was that, one after another, more than a hundred countries of Asia, Africa and South America became free.

The countries which had become newly independent had the tremendous problem of reconstructing their economy so that tolerable conditions of living could first be created for all their people. The old ruling countries, on the other hand, had to think of ways and means of continuing to drain the wealth of their erstwhile colonies.

Science and technology had to be deliberately employed by both sets of countries. The only difference was that the developing countries had to make a start from scratch-with hardly  any  institutions  or  people  who  could  engage  in  competitive  science  and technology, whereas the advanced or developed countries now had a stronger base of science and technology than ever before.

The Indian freedom movement had been conscious that political independence was only a stepping stone to economic independence. Our leaders had realised that our decisions about industry and trade would have to be taken by us alone without compulsion of foreign governments or their business counterparts. And that our economic development would have to serve the people and meet the minimum needs of their food, health, shelter, education, culture etc.

The role of science and technology was crucial for this endeavour and this was clearly expressed in the "Scientific Policy Resolution" adopted by the Parliament in 1958. This resolution was drafted and piloted through the Parliament by our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. In the words of this Resolution:

The key to national prosperity, apart from the spirit of the people, lies, in the modern age, in the effective combination of three factors, technology, raw materials and capital, of which the first is, perhaps, the most important, since the creation and adoption of new scientific techniques can, in fact, make up for a deficiency in natural resources, and reduce the demands on capital. But technology can only grow out of the study of science and its applications.

Since  Independence,  and  particularly  after  the  passage  of  the  Resolution,  a  great expansion of science and technology in both education and research has taken place. The situation today is far different from what it was in 1947. We have now about  290 state public universities, 42 central universities, 50 deemed universities, 17 Indian Institutes of Technology, over 2000 engineering colleges and  150  medical  colleges,  a  few  hundred  scientific  research  laboratories  under  the Central and State governments, as also R&D units in private industry. Research is king done in almost all areas of modern science. The conspicuous success of our scientists in atomic energy, space research and agriculture is well known.

The funds allocated to research have also vastly increased over what they used to be 65 years ago. But in the modern world, it is not enough to be in the forefront of creative science or innovative technology. Out of the total world expenditure on research, excluding  the  socialist  countries,  98%  is  spent  by  the  developed  countries,  the  old imperial powers. Only 2% is spent by all the developing countries taken together. In this, India's share may be half a per cent. New discoveries and new inventions, therefore, still come from the advanced or developed countries.

Surely, this is neither a happy situation nor a stable one. The power of science has reached such a pitch that international relations have to be readjusted, and national effort has to be recast so as to bring about the benefits of science to the lives of common people.

-Hanmanthu and Pranitha