Jatre…aFair with a variety of exciting stuff to form a Celebration called life. At Aarohi we now haveJatrefor one hour – every week – primarily exploring a variety of exciting stuff from life. Jatre gives exposure to all …to expand our learningmaps beyond what we already know.We began Jatre this week withPLANTS.
We all see plants. Most of us know parts of the plants. So we did not feel the need of talking about the parts of the plants, but the role they play in our lives. We felt the need to know what are we growing in campus and why are we growing. We began with pondering
Why do we need plants?
What are vegetables?
What else do we eat?
What are nuts?
What all plants contains?
When you draw a plant, what all parts do you draw?
What is common between banana, sugarcane, and Bamboo?
Which part of the plant is Ladyfinger, Brinjal, Tomato? What is common between Cucumber, Tomato, and Banana?
Which part of the plant is grain?
Where do seeds come from?
Where does fruit come from?
Which part of the plant is Cauliflower or Cabbage?
Where does oil come from?
Other than eating what else plants are used for?
Do you draw birds, bees, butterfly or Insects when you draw a plant?
After this exploration, walk in the campus to experience plants made sense. We could understand why do we have sunflower at the campus or why we grewToor dal or what arenitrogen fixing plants.
The connection with plants grew beyond oxygen and carbon dioxide. Understanding that we eat leaves, seeds, flowers, bark, roots and various parts of the plants took us beyond vegetables and fruits. Understand that for plants it’s not about fruit or vegetable, but it’s all about various parts of the plants and as per human wisdom we choose to eat the root of one plant while flowering of another plant. The role of Nitrogen is very less talked about. The understanding of land regeneration is often missing and the role of other lives like bees, butterflies, and insects is very lessunderstood.
Just an hour of a session was enough to start looking at plants beyond a plant!