Education
What this page covers
This chapter brings together our education-centric efforts — from designing interactive Teaching–Learning Materials (TLMs) to conducting workshops and organizing the STREAM 2025 science fair for school students of the Berhampur–Chhatrapur belt. Here, education becomes more than dissemination; it becomes a two-way exchange that builds curiosity, confidence, and community-level literacy around water safety, metal contamination, and sustainable science.
Pedagogical Rationale
Education has been one of the three thematic pillars of our Integrated Human Practices framework — alongside inclusivity and sustainability. For us, awareness is not an accessory; it is a form of empowerment. The understanding of concepts such as filtration, toxicity, and environmental cycles allows students and citizens to become informed participants in decision-making.
By merging scientific literacy with contextual awareness, our education model seeks to make synthetic biology and water purification tangible, relatable, and rooted in the realities of Odisha’s water landscape.
Education connects laboratory science to society. By bringing filtration science, synthetic biology, and environmental awareness into classrooms, we transform research into shared understanding.
Our focus on Odisha’s schools ensures contextual learning—where students link textbook knowledge to the contamination issues seen in their own rivers and wells.
STREAM 2025 — Local Science Fair for Schools
STREAM 2025 was conceptualized as a local platform for schoolchildren to explore the real-world intersections of science, technology, and environment. Hosted at IISER Berhampur, it invited students from nearby schools across Ganjam district to interact with the POSEIDON project and related scientific exhibits.
The event’s format combined hands-on demonstrations, short talks, and student-led model displays. Our filtration system became a central interactive exhibit, where participants tested sample water, examined alginate beads, and compared visual cues of contamination.
Through conversations, quizzes, and on-site feedback, students articulated their understanding of contamination and the need for safe water. For many, this was their first encounter with research-driven outreach — linking classroom theory to real environmental challenges.
- Demonstrations on metal contamination and basic filtration principles.
- Interactive model of the POSEIDON filtration cartridge and alginate bead preparation.
- Poster and chart competitions on local water issues and sustainability.
- Student volunteers acting as peer educators during the exhibition.
- Feedback sessions showing improved conceptual understanding and curiosity in STEM.
STEM Week & Classroom Workshops
Following STREAM 2025, our team conducted a series of STEM Week workshops and classroom demonstrations across local schools in Berhampur and surrounding villages. These sessions aimed to explain not just “what contamination is,” but “why it matters” — encouraging inquiry-based learning.
Students engaged with miniature models of filtration setups, tested mock contaminated samples, and visualized metal ions through color-based TLM activities designed by our team. Teachers participated too, discussing how environmental topics can be integrated into existing curricula to strengthen local science education.
- Simplifying complex ideas: interactive lessons on water cycles, contamination, and remediation.
- Activity-driven learning: simple experiments using low-cost, locally available materials.
- Dialogue-based sessions with teachers to align classroom goals with sustainability themes.
- Distribution of TLM kits with illustrated guides and pictorial flashcards on metal toxicity.
Custom Teaching–Learning Materials (TLMs)
To make education inclusive and effective across diverse age groups and literacy levels, we developed custom Teaching– Learning Materials. Each kit was crafted to transform abstract concepts — such as adsorption, contamination pathways, and biofiltration — into tangible, visual, and playful experiences.
Our TLMs include metal-ion color cards, illustrated posters showing contamination routes, and small-scale bead models to demonstrate how biosorption works. These tools now serve as both outreach aids and replicable educational modules for other institutions and NGOs seeking to expand awareness on water quality.
- Illustrated flashcards linking common sources of mercury, iron, aluminum, and chromium contamination.
- Reusable water-contamination simulation kits for classroom activities.
- Fold-out posters on sustainable filtration and the 3R principles.
- Instruction manuals in bilingual format (English–Odia) for accessibility.
STREAM and STEM Week turned students into young communicators who carried clean-water awareness back home, sparking discussions in families and neighborhoods.
Insights from education shaped how we refined POSEIDON manuals, icons, and usability features—ensuring our technology is understandable even beyond academic settings.
Informal Learning & Village Interactions
Education for us extends beyond classrooms. During our village visits and awareness surveys, we observed how families perceive water safety, storage, and visible purity. Many equated clarity with safety — an assumption we addressed through demonstration-based awareness drives. Using our portable TLMs and live filtration demos, we engaged villagers in hands-on exploration of how invisible contaminants behave and why testing matters.
This informal education, grounded in conversation rather than instruction, built mutual trust and set the foundation for co-created knowledge — a critical element of sustainable public engagement.
Educational Reflections
Through these educational engagements, we learned that curiosity is contagious. Students became advocates for clean water at home, teachers integrated sustainability into their lessons, and community members began recognizing filtration as a shared responsibility.
More importantly, education emerged as a powerful feedback loop for our design process — informing how we simplified manuals, iconography, and instructions in POSEIDON to ensure that technology aligns with the people it serves.
Other Interesting Chapters
- School visit 01
- School visit 02
- School visit 03
- STREAM 2025 Highlights
- Village Awareness & Surveys
- Human Practices Overview
- Sustainability
Notes on Scope
This page serves as a living record of our educational engagement and the pedagogical framework behind it. As our work continues, these materials will evolve — integrating local language translations, expanding activity sets, and developing open-source educational kits for schools and NGOs.
Education remains our bridge between laboratory science and social transformation — one conversation, one classroom, and one community at a time.