BENGALURU: Government high school teacher Nagaraja CM, from Doddabanahalli, Bengaluru, has been selected for the National Awards for Teachers (NAT) for bringing the ‘reuse and recycle’ trend to his school, and ensuring the continuity of lab experiments for students through the pandemic.
The awards are given by the Ministry of Education. Nagaraja is among 44 teachers across the country to get the award. Nagaraja taught chemistry experiments to students through microscale experiments, even outside the laboratory, using day-to-day items. He used the same model during Vidyagama classes during the pandemic to ensure continuity of lab experiments for his students.
When classes went online, he took his teaching to a larger audience on YouTube and platforms set up by Rotary and SRF Foundation, he told TNIE. On these platforms, he and a team of 30 teachers taught SSLC students who were looking at result improvement.
Nagaraja said he tried to take the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) initiative promoted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to various schools and trained teachers in the district.
Nagaraja also introduced, through craft classes, a practical approach to recycling or upcycling. For instance, making a podium from scrap metal of discarded benches, or using empty milk packets as bags for growing saplings. Students have been taught to ‘reduce-reuse-repurpose’ waste.
A vermicomposting bin was set up in the school and the manure was used in the school garden -- it was an exposure to students on what they can do, Nagaraja said. He was also instrumental in ensuring funds from various organisations towards the establishment of a system for filtering and reusing waste water.