Butterfly Fields – Project Evaluation and Decision
Asha Stamford evaluated the ‘Butterfly Edufields’ program workshop that offers students hands-on-learning aids to enhance their science and math conceptual understanding. Through this workshop the chapter addresses two consistently pressing needs of our project schools: improving quality of teaching and diversifying the approaches to learning. A range of science and math kits developed by Butterfly Edufields will be presented in a 2-day workshop to the teachers and students of TEP school, Manipur, which Asha Stamford has been supporting since 2003.
About Butterfly Edufields:
Butterfly Edufields Pvt. Ltd., an initiative of IIT-IIM alumni, was started in 2005 to make Learning – Easy, Enriching and Engaging. They help students enhance their Science and Math conceptual understanding through their Learning-By-Doing Programs across Classes I to X Std., completely mapped to the CBSE Curriculum, thus ensuring that the concepts learnt are retained for life.
Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and former UGC Chairperson, Prof. Yashpal, have immensely appreciated their Science and Math offerings aimed at enhancing the scientific temper in school children.
Product, Program Structure & Implementation:
The links below provide insight into how their program is implemented:
1) For program structure
2) What did school principals & teachers say about our program?
3) Instruction videos for all our products
More details can be found on their website http://www.butterflyfields.com.
Overview:
Upon hearing about the organization and the potential use of hands-on-learning kits developed by trained professionals, Asha Stamford volunteers approached them to enquire if they would be interested in demonstrating their products and approach in one of our schools, with the goal of improving quality of education. They sent us a variety of links, documents and videos to our chapter in the summer of 2015, which were reviewed and discussed in multiple chapter meetings. There was a general consensus that these aids would be useful to meet the needs of our project schools, as identified in the site visit reports of past years and discussions with TH Joy, the vision behind our TEP school in Manipur.
On Nov 14, 2015 at a chapter meeting, the volunteers decided to approach Butterfly Fields to explore possibility of hosting a 2-day demo/workshop for TEP kids and teachers. TEP School was picked due to the conveniences it offers in terms of ability to house trainers and the materials within school premises.
Subsequently, budget quotes along with what services they could offer to host a 2 day workshop at TEP were obtained. In addition, there were discussions with Joy to get his feedback on whether this type of workshop would be beneficial and logistically possible at the school.
A teleconference was held on 11/23/15 with Joy (from TEP), Bhargavi, Sanjay and Vatsala (from the Stamford chapter) and Uday (from Butterfly Edufields) where the quotes and other practical issues were discussed. Joy expressed that this was a privilege as it was the first time the students would be exposed to learning using hands-on approach. It would benefit the children greatly. He opined that the teachers need training during the workshop too.
Mr. Uday Shankar of Butterfly Edufields addressed the questions, and indicated that they will try to send 2 trainers to TEP for the workshop (assuming 2 days). There will be a focus on training teachers throughout, although a separate session will be held for them. They will be housed within TEP. The budget includes an estimate of the number of kits needed by grade. These numbers will be calibrated based on the actual numbers furnished to Butterfly Fields by Joy/TEP. Any excess kits will be kept for use in TEP School.
Based on feedback from Joy and the in-chapter discussions, it was decided that the workshop would be held in late February or March of 2016.
The cost for a 2-day workshop is Rs 207,750 (~$3100) and for 3-day workshop is Rs 394,800 (~$6000). These amounts include travel, materials and training services fee. A detailed budget breakdown is provided in the appendix.
On Nov 30, 2015 a vote to approve the budget was obtained by chapter volunteers via email. Nine (Bhargavi, Sanjay, Anita, Arun, Bhuma, Jayshree, Cristina, Anand, Vatsala) of the 10 core volunteers voted to fund the 2-day workshop at the TEP School in Manipur. One volunteer did not respond. Based on the 9 votes, the decision was made to fund the 2-day workshop. The money will be sent to the TEP project and they will reimburse ‘Butterfly Edufields’ for the workshop.
This is being treated as a pilot project. If it is found to be successful we may try to buy their products regularly and/or continue with workshops or other partnership activities with Butterfly Edufields at TEP and other project schools. The program will be evaluated after completion of the workshop and determining the usefulness based on the scoring sheets of conceptual understanding Before and After using the kits, which will be shared with us by Butterfly Edufields.
Next steps:
1. Schedule a meeting with Joy/TEP principal to confirm student count and curriculum details for the exact numbers of kits to match the number of students.
2. Finalize the contract, workshop dates and travel plans.
Appendix
Butterfly Fields – Budget proposal
Proposal for 2-day workshop
3-day workshop proposal