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CREATIVE OUTDOOR DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION PVT. LTD. The Complete Outdoor Experience |
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About Project Tours
The Project Tour is an important educational tool that has helped students to become self reliant and instill confidence in their abilities. The tour is best explained in an interview with Mr. Mehernosh Deboo. MEET THE MAN BEHIND PROJECT TOURS Meet Mehernosh Deboo, Director and CEO of Creative Outdoor Development Education Pvt. Ltd. (CODE), the man who has organized and conducted over a 100 Project Tours for over 25 Educational Institutions since 1999. Mr. Deboo will answer Most Frequently Asked questions by Principals and Teachers of Educational Institutions. Q: What according to you is a Project Tour? Mr. Deboo: A tour that is curriculum based and accommodates his current school assignments for which he is going to be marked in his final examination. A tour that is a learning experience wherein he learns through first hand visits and observations which gives him an insight of his subject. A tour that induces him to think, visualize and put on paper the results of his visits and his experience. Q: How important is a Project Tour to a child? 
Mr. Deboo: Project Tours offers a lot of scope for education, research and a proper understanding of the Social Sciences especially history, geography and environmental studies. It gives a practical contact with the outside world bringing the child outside the confines of a classroom and taken to the historical locations where events happened in the past. Every word of the guide is put down on paper and questioned logically till he has answered his queries. Appointments are taken for Factory visits where the child learns about the making of a product or handicraft. A practical learning pattern is established which open the mind of the child and broadens his knowledge base towards the world around him. He attempts every question from the questionnaire, compiles information through research, visits to places and his own understanding. If the School encourages this trend for the next two years (three years in a row), the tours will make him self-reliant and will instill in him confidence to make his projects independently and perhaps change his outlook towards learning.
Q: How is your company CODE instrumental in helping the child in his educational pursuits on the tour? Mr. Deboo: CODE has always been pro-active in Project Tours. We do not limit our role as Tour Operators but go much beyond that definition. Our faculty, studies the age group and class of the student traveling and gives a choice of destinations that is linked with his class room study in history and geography. After the destination is approved, we design the itinerary taking into account historical visits and factory / farm visits. We fix appointments and then start work on the questionnaires after which we have a meeting with the teachers and take in their viewpoints and together complete the questionnaires. On the basis of the questionnaire a power point presentation is prepared and a rough draft of the quiz contest to be held on tour is submitted to the School. A fortnight before the tour the questionnaires are handed to the student for background reading. A week before the tour a Power point presentation is given in the School hall, covering in brief the inputs of the questionnaire. We ensure the tour runs smoothly as planned completing all its requirements including writing of the projects on the tour if the School has opted for that option. We also organize a Quiz contest after completing all visits and projects. Q: Which subjects do you normally cover on a Project Tour? Mr. Deboo: History and Geography are the backbone of a Project Tour. The other subjects are Environment Studies, Commercial Studies, Economic applications, Technical drawing, Art and Architecture….. the list is growing. Q: How do you help a School in planning the destinations for a Project Tour? Mr. Deboo: Initially the first tour that we organize for the School is a litmus test. Once the first tour is a success and the School calls us again for a Project Tour for another class, we chart out the destinations i.e. the child is in Std VIII and has three Project tours to undertake in the next three years then we plan destinations that he will encounter in his history lessons, e.g. Std VIII: Aurangabad, Std IX : Delhi and Agra and Std X: Gwalior and Jhansi. Our faculty studies the syllabus and a three year plan is made along with the questionnaires with a lots of options. The Schools could exercise the options and prepare a complete questionnaire. The batch in Std VIII follows the three year plan, however for the next batch starting in Std VIII a new plan with new destinations is made. This way we avoid going to the same destinations and not to forget that with the students, the teachers are also learning as they have to correct the Project Papers. With new destinations every year they have a better grip over the historical monuments, plant visits, etc. Q: Which destinations in India are suitable to Project Tours? 
Mr. Deboo: All historical destinations that are included in the child’s syllabus from Std III to Std X. Aurangabad is an important destination for studying Buddhism and Jainism. Other destinations that revolve round the syllabus are Gwalior and Jhansi for the 1857 Revolution; Delhi and Agra for Indo-Islamic Architecture; Jaipur and Udaipur for Rajput History; Hampi, Badami and Bijapur for its temples and the Gol Gumbus; Mysore with Srirangapatnam, Belur and Halebid for Hoysala Architecture and the four wars fought by TIpu Sultan; Indore and Mandu for its monuments and Islamic History; Hyderabad for History and Art. Apart from the mentioned destinations, nearby destinations like Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar, Nasik and Goa have a lot of potential for Project Tours.
Q: Are project Tours limited only in India or they have scope even beyond the Indian borders? Mr. Deboo: Indian borders do not limit Project tours as long as the destination has an air of history around it. Recently we organized a Project Tour to Egypt and it met with great success as we were learning history from as early as 3200 BC to the modern day rule of President Mubarak. We traveled to six historical destinations within Egypt and made a thorough study enjoying and savoring every moment of it. Q: Are project Tours limited only in India or they have scope even beyond the Indian borders? Mr. Deboo: Indian borders do not limit Project tours as long as the destination has an air of history around it. Recently we organized a Project Tour to Egypt and it met with great success as we were learning history from as early as 3200 BC to the modern day rule of President Mubarak. We traveled to six historical destinations within Egypt and made a thorough study enjoying and savoring every moment of it. Q: How does a Project Tour help a child in the years to come? Mr: Deboo A project encourages a child to do research. In order to do research a child will have to do a lot of background reading to help understand the subject. Once the child is mentally prepared with his research papers and queries he undertakes a visit to the destination / site, in order to get first hand information; his observations, comments and interpretations are material for his project which normally a book or internet sites cannot provide. He thinks rationally, questions logically and notes methodically and then presents his papers in the form of a Project. Once he understands the making of a Project, life will become much more easier as there will be Projects to be submitted in College, Management School or even when he is working for a company. Introduction of a new product in the market or opening a new division within the company will call for a Project Report. Since he has been acquainted with the basics whilst in School, he can only get better in the years to come. Q: You have been organizing Project Tours for many Schools. Do you have a merit rating system for Schools? 
Mr. Deboo: We have started a merit rating system since 2003. The idea behind this exercise is to know the past performance of each school before a next (coming) tour and accordingly prepare ourselves (manpower planning and educational techniques) and the students to better their previous performance. We have a check–list and measure the performance of each School on the basis of: (1) their preparation before the tour; (2) their line of questioning and interest in making notes; (3) their overall behavior and attitude towards making their projects on tour; (4) their participation and performance in quiz contests and historical enactments. (5) the role of the teachers on Project Tours. Make no mistake of the fact, the success of a Project tour lies in the interest and active participation of the teachers. We normally write a letter to inform our best School in the merit rating. The merit ratings also help us to understand the mind-set of each School and in the event we find a lack of interest in a
particular School, we work overtime in preparing them to perform better on the next tour.
What is your advise to Schools on Project Tours? Mr. Deboo: Project Tours is an important educational tool (in the School curriculum) whose time has come, welcome it. A serious approach will make learning social studies and environment education in School and on tours an obsession. Setting a proper environment for Project Tours and slowly and steadily a culture should be top priority. Patience, persistence and encouragement is the need of the hour. A proper plan will put in place theoretical studies in School and practical studies on tours. Each tour should have a proper agenda and the teachers and tour–operator must fulfill all the requirements of the agenda. Select your Project Tour Operator after a careful analysis of his experience, knowledge of the destination/s and performance, and stick to him for that particular batch for three years as they will respond better to his teaching techniques. With each passing tour tabulate the purpose, performance and knowledge gained on each tour from Projects made by the students and very soon you will comprehend that this is an indispensable programme a School cannot do without. Q: Who according to you are the Movers and Shakers of this programme? 
Mr. Deboo: According to me there are many who have encouraged the programme and made it an important educational tool for their students; a few that I can recollect are : Mrs. Meera Isaacs (The Cathedral and John Connon School) for pioneering Project Tours, Mrs. Asma Kantawalla (The Scholar High School) for introducing CODE to Project Tours and encouraging us at each stage to upgrade the programme, Mrs. Ranjini Krishnaswamy (St. Gregorios High School) to take the programme beyond the Indian borders (Egypt, Turkey, Italy Tour) Mr. Mark David (P.G. Garodia School) for implementing this programme to make the child self reliant and setting the right environment for practical studies on tours, Mrs. M. Chandrashekhar for her vision and contribution to take the programme beyond the syllabus. Prof. Kersy Daroga (University School of Design) for using the programme to breed a new generation of professionals. Mrs. Veena Sethi / Mrs Mohitri Chaudhury (Marble Arch School) for taking the programme to the next level with animation and Power Point Presentations.
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