Publication

Abstract : Over the past few decades, the gap between rural and urban India has been widening both on a cultural and on a technological level. A value-based educational system could help bridging this gap. Such an education system augments the regular academic curricula with learning experiences for character-building. These non-formal learning experiences contribute to a lifelong learning process. In this work, we report on a two week, experiential learning internship project, where urban university students conducted three-day science camps for K-12 rural children in North India. One objective was to introduce rural children to basic concepts in science through hands-on learning using low-cost and locally available materials. Another objective of the internship was to provide university students with an immersive, mutually beneficial experience of village life, culture, and challenges. The main research question of the study was how the internship experience impacted the character values of the university students. Character values were quantified by scores for self-esteem, empathy, and attitude towards rural life. Major findings were significant improvements in self-esteem, and a strong correlation between improvements in self-esteem and in empathy. The study also investigated gender-based differences and found that girls even profited significantly more than boys with respect to changes in self-esteem, as well as in their attitudes toward rural life.