Visit to Manchanable Dam

Purpose of Field trip :

• Understand the purpose of reservoir/dam in a location
• Understand how the water collected there – is used for various
• purposes
• Understand the reasons for the change in water levels
• Understand how settlers valued, used and looked after the natural
• resource (water, forest, land)
• Collect water samples for analysis
• Role of a Water Engineer

The dam is situated on the outskirts of Bangalore, across the River Arkavathi. It is at a distance of 40 km from Bangalore. The dam’s main purpose is for agriculture, water storage for domestic purposes and fisheries ( which is a growing industry),

The children of Grade 3 left at 6.30 am and had a good time during the bus journey, being a part of the daily traffic, observing the early hours of the city, having breakfast on the bus and playing simple games. We arrived at the farmhouse around 10 am, after which we quickly regrouped for a walk to the Dam. The children explored the working of the dam, by understanding the depths of the reservoir, uses of the different machines, the inlets, and outlets involved in releasing the water into the underground canal.

The resource person addressed the children about the history of the dam, its main uses, and maintenance. The children then explored the function of the outlets, how and when the water gates are opened and the quantity of water stored in the dam.

We all walked back to the farmhouse and enjoyed our packed lunch. The children discussed their observations on the size, uses and working of the dam. Some of the children connected it to KRS and the similarities between the 2 dams. Upon return, the children engaged in a reading on dams and discussed their learning as a class, about the material used to build dams, the different reasons dams are built and how dams can cause floods.

This experience helped the children look at dams in a new light, as they were quite familiar with the power generation feature of dams, and are now able to identify many other uses of dams.

Expert Talk on the system of Online shopping

Purpose of Expert Talk:

Understand the different systems inside Big Basket

Understand how the different systems in Big Basket are connected to each other.

Understand the form, function, needs, and challenges of the Big Basket as a system and also the changes that the system has gone through ever since its inception in 2011 to fulfill the needs of its customers.

Understand how these changes in the system happen to cater to the needs of the community.

Expert Talk:

The expert talk was conducted by Mr. Abinay Chaudhari, the Co-founder of Big Basket, he gave the children an insight into the backend planning and work that goes into commercial companies and how roles and responsibilities help organize work.

Mr. Abhinay gave a short presentation about how Big Basket is just not about an app on the phone but a complete system in itself with several big or small subsystems working with each other to achieve a common goal of helping people get their groceries delivered to their homes easily. With over 20,000 products and 3000 for express delivery, Big Basket is functioning in 25 cities

He spoke about the various systems like-  Financial Management system, communication systems, Human Resource, Warehouse  Management system etc.  that take care of all the back-end jobs.

As the customer orders a product the requirement goes to the nearby hub. The items get picked up as per the order and they are packed and checked by a Customer Experience Executive (CEE). Routes are then decided with the help of Google maps and a proper planning of the route is done so as to avoid any traffic or delay. The driver is given the route details and order details and trucks are loaded and taken for delivery.

 The major challenges that big basket encounters are traffic delays, because of which there are delays in the delivery. Another challenge is products running out of stock, weather conditions can also become a challenge as sometimes when it's too hot the products that need to be kept in cold may get damaged, Maintenance of delivery vehicles also become one of their biggest challenges.

 Some changes that big basket has gone through from past few years are that first they had cash on delivery and there was no app system,  the customers used to book the items on the website. Later they shifted on from cash on delivery to the card on delivery. They have also installed Big Basket vending machines for instant orders. The app has made ordering more convenient.

How is Big Basket interrelated with other systems? Big Basket outsourcers many of the products directly from the farmers, from the manufacturers of the products- for example, stationery, plastic goods etc. They also source products directly from the FMCG companies which are Colgate, Dettol, Nestle, Britannia etc

 They also depend a lot on transport systems and Google Maps which help them plan their routes without any delay and reaching to the customers without any inconvenience.

Children were good listeners and had some interesting questions to ask the expert

They felt it is a very helpful system as people who are busy may not have time to go grocery shopping

They also posed questions related to the future needs like- Big Basket instant is not functioning everywhere so if there is an urgency,  90 minutes for express delivery may be too late.

It was good to see students thinking about how systems can be made or improved every day to meet the needs of people.

Mr. Abhinay Big Basket

Expert Talk on Sewage Treatment Plant

Purpose of the Expert Visit :

1. Understand the sources of wastewater

2. How is wastewater managed by a city

3. STP- Structure

4. STP function

5. What happens to the treated water?

The children participated in this session with a lot of enthusiasm. Ms. Vidya spoke about wastewater and its categories. Children got a good insight into how domestic wastewater is collected and treated by municipal bodies within a city. An experimental setup on filtration gave children an insight into how solid waste is separated from water. The children then explored the different steps of a Sewage treatment plant through a visit to the School STP wherein, they observed the different stages they had learned about during the presentation. The STP helped the children understand how the collection, sedimentation, decantation, filtration work and what happens to the water once it is treated. This expert visit helped children understand what happens to water after it is used.

Visit to General Post office

Purpose of Field trip:

• Understand the different systems inside GPO
• Understand how the GPO is connected to the various other systems of Bangalore
• Understand the form, function, needs, and challenges of the GPO as a system also the changes that the GPO has gone through during all these years.
• Understand how these changes in the system happen to cater to the needs of the community.
• Understanding how the systems like GPO, BWSSB, BMTC in a city by large are interconnected and affect the community.

Field Trip to GPO

On the way to the General Post-office students made a lot of connection in terms of systems in Bangalore. With the previous discussions and after the study of systems in “NEEV “they were able to identify the Systems on a larger level. They saw BWSSB water supply tankers, BSNL for managing communication, they identified the BBMP for picking up the garbage in the City, they also identified the banking Systems on the way like SBI, ICICI, and the Traffic management office.

They also shared about how fire station, the police station is also a system and they provide services to the community.

Inside the GPO the students saw the sorting department where the mails received were being sorted and separated as per the pin code and area. There were postmen for each area who would pick up the posts from there and go around distributing it.

The mail after being dropped in the letterboxes is picked up and sent to this department for sorting and entry into the system.

Students came to know that earlier when there was no computer and the entry of the mails received was done manually in a register, it was a tedious process. With the use of technology, the mails can be tracked quickly and the status of its delivery or non-delivery can be shared with the customer.

The major challenge the GPO faces is with the incorrect pin codes or addresses which leads to confusion and because of which the mails are not delivered to its intended recipient.

Inside the GPO there were different systems working independently but also interconnected to each other for e.g.: the registered post, the parcel department, the banking services department and the philately department, all working in tandem with each other.

The other connection of systems that students noticed was that the international parcel system inside GPO was using the Air India services for articles to be sent outside the country whereas the ordinary mail services ( within the state or within the country)  was working very closely with the philately department which deals in the collection of stamps.

 Children pointed out that the ordinary mails which are to be dropped in the letterbox also needed stamps to be purchased from the philately department and that they were different stamps for different places for e.g.: outside Karnataka, there were different stamps used and inside Karnataka, there were different stamps to be used.

They were quite surprised to see the banking activities were also part of the GPO. Many of them were not aware of this function of. Students were able to identify the key concepts- form, function, change, and causation to the visit to GPO.

It was good to see children making so many connections and identifying the systems of the city and how the systems are also interdependent to each other. Post field trip a student mentioned about how her father receives his important documents from banks like HDFC through the post. This was a WOW moment where the student established how the banking system is relying on the General Post-office system of the city for delivering the relevant and important documents. 

The field trip to BWSSB

Purpose: Distribution and availability of usable water

             The field trip to BWSSB in Bangalore took place on the 17th of July. The children of Grade 3 visited the facility at HSR layout in two batches. Once there, the person in charge gave us a brief about the different processes and responsibilities of BWSSB. He began the session with some inquiry about water which then led to the uses of BWSSB. He spoke to the children at length about where the water is sourced from, how it is purified, chemically treated, how the tanks are used for storage and supply, what kind of pipelines are laid, and the role of BWSSB in providing household supply of water.

             The children were then taken to the different parts of the unit showing them where the water is collected, how the water was pumped into the water tankers, the pumping stations, where the water flow was regulated by different meters, rainwater harvesting units, the sewage maintenance trucks etc.

            We then discussed what happens to water supply when there is limited rainfall and how it changes the regular schedule of water supply. The resource person also spoke to the children about how domestic meters are installed and how the billing system works. The children were quite fascinated with the different facets of water supply and management with in the city. They had a few questions regarding why BWSSB water is different from the private water suppliers. The resource person then spoke to the children about how the water is sourced from rivers which is a good source of freshwater. It is treated and purified at regular intervals because of which the water is potable and easy to use.

      The overall learning from this field trip was to understand management and supply of freshwater within city limits ensuring that all the people living in the city had access to clean drinking water. The field trip helped the children to connect their learning with the third Line of Inquiry: Distribution and availability of water. 

The Countdown to Our First PYP Exhibition!

The much awaited Neev’s first PYP Exhibition is here, celebrating the students’ learning journey in the PYP years. We are looking forward to an exciting event and certainly another milestone for us. Students will be showcasing their explorations, learning and actions to members within the Neev community and to an audience comprising of other PYP schools. The cynosure will be on all the elements of PYP. The excitement amongst our 5^th graders is palpable. The students are very ebullient and come across as committed and confident learners.

The Exhibition Unit is student led with teachers and mentors facilitating the inquiry. The focus is to build a body of knowledge with skills, disposition and concepts woven in right measures. No learning is complete unless it is put in action. Our young inquirers are definitely doing it and we can have a peek into the same on the 13^th and 14^th of April.

PYP EXHIBITION - NEEV ACADEMY YEMALUR

PYP EXHIBITION - NEEV ACADEMY YEMALUR

PYP EXHIBITION - NEEV ACADEMY YEMALUR

MUN@Neev to WIMUN: A journey

MUN@Neev is an initiative started by the teachers to provide us with the appropriate experience we need to participate in an MUN conference. I was very eager to participate in it. I have taken part in MUN for two years and the experience has been really helpful in developing collaborative, consensus-building and critical thinking skills. Being able to think on the spot, speaking using the information from my research, managing my time and myself, and meeting deadlines, these are just a few things I am proud of being able to do.

This summer, we, the Grade 7 students, will get our first taste of MUN outside Neev. It will be a great way to showcase our learning. The trip will be a real test of our organization skills, keeping track of different events will be hard. The amount of research that has to be completed for this conference is alarming, so far this process has been intensive and very difficult; however, we have received a lot of help from the senior students. I would like to thank them --  they have given us first hand information which really gave us an idea of what to look forward to. Our senior students have provided excellent examples on how to  participate and make our voice heard in these conferences, and we look forward to living up to their expectations.

In this new venture, I aim to define myself as a Munner. My goal is to actively participate and showcase my opinion and my ideas. Personally, I feel honoured to represent Neev at this prestigious conference. I will give my 110% and do my best to make Neev proud.

Tarun Padmanabhan

Grade 7

Words of advice from a senior MUN student

That is how to do it

Eager listeners

We learn from experience

What's happening at MUN@Neev?

Mun@Neev helps us to learn about the world around us, with the decorum and enthusiasm required to succeed at Model United Nations Conferences. We are currently debating the legality of Early and Forced Marriage and its influence on society. Our first topic was the Use of Mercenaries, and we had to come up with solutions, which we drafted into resolutions. The accuracy and quality of the draft resolution was to be determined by vote and the best draft resolution (the one with the highest number of votes) would have been selected as a solution to the issue at hand. We failed to reach a consensus on the proposed solutions, but we did learn a lot - leadership skills, cooperation, social skills and research skills. The application of research skills and leadership skills was clearly evident in the depth of research of the draft resolutions.

    A new chapter started for us in November: we have been given the responsibility of running MUN@Neev. We are becoming more independent and improving our collaboration skills, but it is hard work. We plan to cross our boundaries, pay attention to the tiniest detail, knowing that we will create solutions to what are some of the world’s most contentious issues.

Onkar Kulkarni
MUN@Neev