City as Lab_Trailer
Channel: ORF Mumbai
Date: 2015-12-14

Here's a trailer to ORF's documentary film on "City as Lab: Every Child a Scientist". City as Lab (CaL) is an enquiry-based research project conceptualised by Reniscience Education, rooted in the idea that there is a researcher in every child. 

Over the course of three to four months, students from Class 6 to 9 collaborate to pose and probe pertinent questions about their city. The students, in groups of two to five, follow evidence-backed research methodologies to find answers to what they see around them and recommend solutions. The questions children ask range from which areas in their city are most polluted, why children drop out of school, to how technology impacts playtime. 

Using the city as their laboratory, students observe their surroundings, question what they see around them, decide on a research question (by consensus), formulate a hypothesis, engage in literature review, collect data through observations and surveys, analyse their findings and extrapolate results to draw conclusions.

Students are encouraged to connect academic learnings with their everyday lives and immediate environment through first-hand enquiry and critical thinking. The participation of teachers too is integral to the success of the project, with every school nominating teachers to guide students. CaL gives children an opportunity to discover their ability to reason, think critically, work collaboratively, and more importantly, understand their city as participative citizens.

This case study is a part of ORF's report on "Connected Learning: Cities as vibrant learning spaces".