Extra-Academic Programs

The aim of this PBL was to introduce the three C’s of contemporary Indian Culture: Cricket, Cooking and Cinema. We began with a basic introduction session on Indian history, famous personalities, monuments, festivals, dances, etc. This gave the participants a bird’s view of what India is all about. Then we moved on to the main focus of the PBL, the three C’s.

We began with watching the biggest blockbuster in Bollywood cinema, “Sholay”, a 1975 multi-starrer, action thriller based on the theme of revenge. This movie broke all records by running continuously for more than 5 years in one cinema hall! We also watched the 2008 hit, “Singh is king”. The two movies gave us a good understanding of how Indian cinema has changed over the last three decades in terms of themes, cinematography, music and locales. The group enjoyed the taste of Indian cinema thoroughly. It was a good exposure to make-belief idea of Indian cinema, and to understand how a billion people watch movies purely for entertainment purpose and nothing beyond.

Then we moved on to Cricket – almost a religion in contemporary India. Due to unfriendly weather, we could play cricket only for one day. However, we watched some highlights of famous cricket matches on you tube. The frenzy of the spectators after every good shot matched that of any soccer match in Europe. We were exposed to the cricketing equipment, learnt the basic rules of the game, and then tried our skills on the field. It was fun!!

Now moving on to the last C – cooking the Indian way! It was definitely the most interesting part. We cooked three times in our PBl week. There we cooked Allu parata, chapattis, butter chicken, apart from the Indian dal and vegetables. Bindu, Naren’s wife, was the main person here as Naren took a back seat!! She taught us how to all the above dishes. Everyone got chance to first learn and then cook the dish. Though first timers, we didn’t do a bad job of it at all!! That was evident in the taste of our own cooked dishes!!

There were other add-ons to the original program. We tried out Indian costumes like sari and the salwar kameez!! Check out the photo!! We also learnt the Devanagri script and wrote our names in Hindi. To cap our learning and experience, we choreographed a typical Indian dance on a famous Bollywood song.

The PBL-week, organised as a work shop in visual art, focused on graphic techniques.

The professional artist Karen Helga Maurstig was invited to share her knowledge with the participants. Her speciality is graphic techniques and she has gained her special knowledge through a residency-stipend in Japan. The PBL was set up as a workshop where introduction of basic graphic techniques were in focus.

KHM lead the work-shop for three days and the following materials and techniques were investigated:
Textile materials, plastic, paper, hair/fibre, and metal.

The approach to gain a better understanding of the technique and its characteristics was to investigate, with an open mind, by focusing on texture, form/design, composition and use the graphic techniques in a playful way by working on simple themes such as poetry, dreams conveying simplified stories.

The formal aspects were kept to a simplified, abstract expression.

Every day a new technique was introduced allowing the participants to work independently but still with needed guidance and advise.

14 students took part in the workshop.  This made the rooms  too crowded and more space could have been useful in order to have a better working environment. However, this did not prevent the participants from creating a good working atmosphere and to put in an effort with the means available.

The conclusion must be that all students, with a very few exceptions, took part with engagement and commitment and that the students gained new knowledge enabling them to widen their understanding of the topic.

Experiences and conclusions from the PBL-workshop are reflected/documented in the IB-art students’  Investigation Workbooks.

Before our PBL, All of us were involved in generating ideas, collecting materials, such as Chinese movies, poems, old newspapers, special ingredients, etc. Students were divided into two groups, each group had a leader, thus ensured everyone take responsibility of the activity.

We hit the road with an extremely high spirit!

During the PBL, we did the following activities:

1. Oral Chinese immersion

The students picked up new words in Chinese everyday, which are commonly used in daily life, such as chopstick, knife, candy, honey, chair, TV, etc. We also had the session called CHINESE ONLY, in which the students could only talk in Chinese, otherwise they would deserve punishment.

2. paper-cutting, paper-folding and Chinese knot making

We sat around the table, cut or folded paper, made Chinese knot together according to the Chinese custom. The students are very ingenious to show their skills. We decorated one of the walls with our beautiful handicraft.

3. Chinese song learning

We learned a very famous Chinese pop song called DIG CHINA, which helped the students have a better understanding of Chinese music and culture.

4. Chinese dishes cooking

We tried different types of Chinese dishes, which including Chinese pie, hot-pot, Chinese noodles, steamed stuffed bun, fried onion with beef, fried  bananas, Cucumber in Sauce, fried rice, etc. We were so lucky to have blueberry around (due to the high latitudes and cold weather there).We picked a lot and made jam and cake with it. Yummy……Yummy! The delicious food always made our mouths water. We enjoyed cooking, washing dishes, and the most important thing—team work!

5. Watching Chinese movies

We shared some typical Chinese movies, which introduce China‘s achievements of cultural advancement from ancient civilizations to the modern world. We all highly enjoyed that special moment of watching Chinese movies. Anyone who likes Chinese language and literature will definitely like Chinese films.

6. Pingpang and badminton playing, long rubber band jumping

We did not do enough outdoor activities as we had expected due to the cold weather. But we really enjoyed the rare outdoor activities. We shared different jumping ways of playing long rubber band. Chinese and Thai are really fond of that. Exercises help us feel refreshed and keep a clear mind all the time.

7. Writing Chinese characters with Chinese brush

Most students think that it is miraculous to learn Chinese character as well as writing it with Chinese brush. The students learned how to hold the brush and how to write simple Chinese characters. Everyone was evolving with technique and their handling of the brush.

8. Chinese Birthday party for Njaal

We held a Chinese birthday party for Njaal when came back to college in my house. The students cooked themselves amazingly! We had fun in using chopsticks and living together as a big family!

9. Celebration and evaluation

We had a meeting the last day of our PBL, sharing our thoughts and experience, discussing what we had not done well enough and how to improve our activity in the future. We watched the last movie about the history of China, and successfully finished our Chinese PBL.

Here at RCNUWC we share important views about the world. At Laski we were privileged to see the world in another way, from the point of view of people who see differently from the way we do, but who see things the same in many ways. You cannot get to know a blind person without wanting to support that person in every way you can, especially when you see the way they support themselves in the face of difficulties that are hard to imagine for us who are blessed with sight.

We share values with those people at Laski – with the Franciscan sisters who provide a secure living environment, with the teachers who open possibilities of learning and finding a livelihood in the world, and with the Laski students themselves. We want to bring them here again in April so that we can share with them the way they shared with us during our really great week in Poland.

Not everything was pleasant. Together we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau, and we heard Kuba say to the guide that people like our Laski friends would be the first to be selected for the gas chamber instead of the work gang. This was true. Do we have a world now where there is equal opportunity for people with a disability such as blindness? I don’t think so, but we can work towards it. Riding on a tandem bicycle with a blind person is a powerful experience, when you feel the strength of that person driving the bicycle forward, and you feel the responsibility of steering and there is complete trust. We had so much fun at the disco the night before we left, and I didn’t imagine a blind person could dance with so much freedom and joy. We were all so fortunate to have been there with them.