Case Study- Girls dressing up as little engineers

Rani Dulhan Kothi is the place from where Mantasha belongs, respectively Sadiya comes from a village Malla ka Nagla near Alam Imambadha. Malla ka Nagla is in Lodha Block which comes under Baron Panchayat. It belongs to Aligarh Division Uttar Pradesh. Like any other villages, these villages also have poor electricity, roads are not fit for travelling and drinking water is the most important issue.

Mantasha lives with her family in Rani Dulhan Kothi. There are 8 members in her family. It’s a big family. Her father Saleem is general labour who works on a constructions site. Her mother Aqeela is a housewife and works all through the day at home. Mantasha has 5 siblings. Samreen, Abdul, Shahir, Amna and Benarzir. The household family income is around Rs 6000/- per month. We can’t even imagine the difficulties they have to face in their everyday life. Sometimes the food is enough for all the family members. But in this dire situation, they live with happiness and comfort. As there’s a line of the song “Jeena Isi ka Naam hai”. 4 kids go to school and there they have their mid-day meal.

Sadiya lives with her father Mohammad Alam, mother Sabiha and her 4 siblings Raheem, Salima, Rabia and Arzoo. Her father is a street vendor and her mother is a housewife. Their household income is around Rs 4000/- per month. They have a 2 small room house. They have a little space where her mother had sowed some seeds of tomatoes and coriander. Her mother makes delicious sewaiyan and also stitches mats from waste clothes. They have two goats and a few hens too. It's hard to live a life with such a small income but they manage this so beautifully with all the requirements fulfilled. The kids go to school together.

Mantasha and Sadiya are students of class 7th and 8th and study in PS & UPS Dodhpur, Aligarh. Both the girls are very studious. Mantasha is a quiet girl and very focused on her studies. She likes to play kabaddi with her friends. She likes to draw cartoons and sing songs. She wants to be a singer whereas Sadiya is a talkative kind of girl and keeps on asking questions about everything she sees around her as an inquisitive person. She keeps on moving here and there in order to ask something. She wants to know all the whys, what, where etc. She wants to be a doctor when she’s grown up.

During National Science Event organized as District Level on March 2022, various Science Projects were given to the students of classes 7 and 8. The school Principal gave one project named Working Model of Water Dispenser to two girls in classes 7 and 8 named Mantasha and Sadiya respectively. This was a difficult task for these students. There was a question about how they’ll do this project and what are things required.

Since there was ALIG’s intervention in their school which was Digital Literacy Program and STEM. The students got proper training on using tablets and laptops and how they can use them for their projects or search for any topics for discussions. STEM helped students to open their minds, and enhance their creativity and thinking. Now, students have tablets in school, and during digital literacy, class students get an internet connection from the teacher. During that class, students get 45 minutes of time to explore their learning by using google chrome and YouTube with the help of the tablet they use. Therefore, day by day students are getting smart toward digital literacy and STEM modes and mediums.

 These little girls Mantasha and Sadiya used digital resources and STEM training to get the best idea from online search engines, which they have mastered on. They have learned to invest a significant number of hours to collect ideas and resources from online platforms with the tablet. They collect all the required materials they watched on the YouTube demo video from the tablet such as square-shaped four sizes of wood to design the shape of a water dispenser, an old water tap, and an old water pipe to connect the water supply from the pipe to the tap. This is how they made the Working Model of Water dispensers. Finally, they got the prize at National Science Fair for making the science Project.