In an inspiring initiative that merges creativity with environmental consciousness, an eco-friendly seed Ganpati idol-making workshop was held at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vividhlakshi Vidyalaya, Kandivli.

Under the expert guidance of Swati Panshiker, Namrata Shetye, Archana Shah, and Nivedita Shukla, students eagerly participated in crafting their own Ganesh idols. This workshop was meticulously organized by the school’s Nature Club, underscoring the school’s commitment to sustainable and culturally enriching activities.

The participants used eco-friendly materials, learning to mold beautiful idols that also benefit the environment. This hands-on experience was not only educational but also fun, as students explored their creativity while gaining awareness about eco-conscious practices.

After completion, the idols were set aside to dry, ready for use in the upcoming Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. This experience not only deepened students’ connection with their culture but also instilled a sense of responsibility toward the environment. Overall, the event was a resounding success, leaving students with a sense of accomplishment and joy.

As going green becomes the new mantra, the workshop promoted the use of natural materials over chemical-based options. The school conducted a special focus on making eco-friendly Ganesh idols, titled “Green Ganesha”, on 6th September.

The “Tree Ganesha” idols, designed to be immersed in water, will disintegrate completely after being soaked, with organic materials like red soil that dissolve in water. Once dampened, the seeds inside will germinate, creating a lasting memento of the idol.

With the immersion of these idols, the water is less polluted. Under the leadership of Principal Kshama Valanjo and Vice Principal Dipti Rathod, this initiative is an outstanding example of the school’s dedication to sustainability. After the workshop, many students created eco-friendly Ganpatis at home.

Ganpati Workshop at Balbhavan, Charni Road

On August 29th, the students of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Vividhlakshi Vidyalaya also visited Balbhavan, Charni Road, for a Ganpati idol-making workshop. Thanks to the efforts of Principal Kshama Valanjo and guidance from teachers Swati Panshikar, Namrata Pawaskar, and Snehnasu Desai, the students experienced an enriching and joyful workshop creating their own idols.

The organizers at Balbhavan detailed the art and history of idol-making and encouraged students by explaining the methods of preparation. The hands-on experience provided a fantastic learning opportunity, enabling the students to shape and mold Ganesh idols from scratch.

This fun-filled workshop brought immense satisfaction to the students, who enjoyed a beautiful day of learning, creativity, and a memorable experience at Balbhavan.

KES’ Sri T. P. Bhatia College of Science, organized the Interschool Football Championship on 28^th and 29^th November 2023 in its Football Turf at college, Playground. 26 teams of girls and boys from several schools of Mumbai participated in the contest.

The event was inaugurated by Smt. Varsha Salvi, District Sports Officer, Mumbai Suburban. She addressed the students, congratulating T.P. Bhatia college for organizing such sports events where students get an opportunity to compete with other schools.

The students from various schools were thrilled to play on the turf with professional Referees. The team leaders were interviewed after the game by teacher Mr. Hasan and the organizing team of Mr. Nilesh and Mr. Madhukar Pisal took care of students in everything else. The beautiful trophies were given to the champions, first and second runners up and 4 special trophies were given for extraordinary performances to the best Player, Goalkeeper, Defender and striker.

This is the 2^nd year of football championship and we hope that in coming years it will gain more and more popularity.

The purpose of organizing such interschool activities is solely brand building and mouth publicity by visiting participants besides the other benefits to players. Students are encouraged to play with true sportsman spirit and forget about the competition. Such Sports Meets also inspires students to find true happiness in physical activities like sports and keep away from the gadgets, it also helps them to stay cheerful and develop physical and mental strength.

In two days some 390 students 60 teachers and coaches from 26 schools visited our college.

KES Sri T. P. Bhatia college of Science throws open its large playground for 27 teams across Mumbai to participate in the interschool football championship matches on 28th and 29th  November, 2023. The meet will be inaugurated at 9 am on 28th November 2023 by Smt. Varsha Salvi, District Sports Officer, Mumbai Suburban.

Why Football ?

Why did we choose this sport for our interschool meet?

Football is a sport that teaches us a lot about teamwork and values like unselfishness and empathy. Football helps us gain strength in the lower body as well as the upper body. The lower body develops due to running on the field, shooting, dribbling, passing, jumping, and tackling.

Football is a simple, universal sport. It is an activity that trains our endurance and cardio fitness due to the repeated and we become more toned and coordinated. As a team sport, football has numerous benefits for our mental health too!‍
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Benefits of Playing Football

1. Improves endurance: One can cover up to 10 km during a match along with having fun sending free kicks. It makes cardio and breathing even stronger.‍
2. Football improves our strength. The player goes through numerous changes of pace during a match, accelerating and running backwards and forwards, with no time for a breather – These repeated actions improve strength as well as endurance.
3. ‍Being a team sport, we use all of our physical abilities. While diving to save goals or jumping, we stretch and work on our balance. Running and accelerating, trains our speed. Football isn’t just about fitness; it’s also about formation and calls for team spirit and solidarity. We have to respect our teammates and communicate on the pitch to strengthen the team. A tight formation and dedicated team can beat a team of much better players. And that’s great for personal development.
4. You cannot become a legend without your team. Football teaches you a lot about teamwork and unselfishness.
5. Muscle strength: Football helps us gain strength in our lower body as well as the upper body. Our lower body develops due to running on the field, shooting, dribbling, passing, jumping, and tackling. And our upper body gains strength by shielding the ball, throw-ins, and by holding off the opponent. In this way, football helps you develop the muscle strength of the entire body.‍
6. Aerobic capacity: We require a high level of stamina due to all the running in this game. As we keep moving and changing our speed throughout the game it increases our stamina.‍
7. Cardiovascular health- A player runs for about 8 to 11 km in a football game. This constant running always keeps their heart rate high. And this is an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise and an excellent way to keep your body healthy. Constant running also helps you resist plaque buildup in coronary arteries.‍

Besides the benefits mentioned above there are innumerable other advantages of this game like building muscle mass and burning fat, developing bone strength, coordination, physical toughness, mental toughness, cognitive brain function, concentration, mental relaxation and much more.

What more, if you really love the game, you can make Football a career too.

Activities :
We have been using times NIE not only as a teaching tool for learner’s but also as a relationship builder with their parents. In addition to that I taught students how to make Newspaper reading a learning tool during vacations !

After the schools closed for vacation, many students are travelling to their native places or going out with family to enjoy. It was a very long and eventful two years of the pandemic having lot of negative impact on students’ learning. Children learn best in schools with their peers and in the atmosphere of school where they get chance for various co curricular activities too. The one positive thing that came out of Covid 19 has been receiving the soft copy of the students edition of Times of India, Time NIE every morning.

Times NIE has beaten the path by being so punctual in bringing out the E edition throughout the Pandemic for students free of cost.

As a school student, I was introduced to newspaper reading at a very young age by my parents and so I always feel that reading any newspaper in various languages helps students in multiple ways, bringing multiple benefits that cannot be fathomed.
Students can use this habit of newspaper reading as a tool to enhance their skills and knowledge at the same time. It’s like aiming at many targets with one shot.

What’s are the few 21 st Century skills that students can develop themselves not only in school but also at home and specially during vacation, just by the newspaper reading activity effectively and consistently, without feeling the pressure of learning, in a very interesting way?

Let us look at some of them and believe me I myself was amazed when I collated the list. It completed A to Z and some more can be added by the readers. So here they are:

1. English reading skills
2. Comprehension skills
3. Translation skills
4. Analysis skill
5. Critical thinking skills
6. General knowledge enhancement
7. Writing skills
8. Creative writing
9. Creating suitable titles
10. Picture comprehension skills
11. Art and poster making skills
12. Critical appreciation skills
13. Relationships skills
14. Respect for diversity skills
15. Values enhancement
16. Vocabulary development
17. Story writing skills
18. Story telling skills
19. Self-awareness skills
20. Community awareness
21. Citizenship value
22. Knowledge of law
23. Collaboration skills
24. Media Literacy
25. Technology literacy
26. Social skills

What steps to follow to develop the skills mentioned above?

These are a few very simple techniques to develop the 26 skills mentioned above, just by being a regular reader of Newspapers.

1. Make a notebook for newspaper based activities. Cover this notebook, decorate the cover with creative ideas. Write your name and year on it.
2. Obtain a decent dictionary for your self.
3. Resolve to use the newspaper and the notebook every day even if it is for a short time without fail.
4. Find someone to whom you can read aloud. Parents, Grandparents( my favourite) siblings if not in your house then in neighbourhood. Don’t wait for them to be free. Fix a time for reading and read anyway at least for half an hour or till you finish reading the entire paper.
5. Read all the articles whose headlines interest you, read it aloud.
6. In your newspaper notebook write down selected 10 new words that you found with their meanings.
7. Write down in your notebook the most interesting headline according to you on each page of the newspaper.
8. Write down and learn catch slogans or valuable thoughts you read.
9. Look at any picture in the paper and write a note on whatever comes to your mind after seeing the picture.
10. Once in a while create a poster or drawing based on any news article which interests you or has a social message for the society. This poster image can be shared on social media with a title made by you.
11. Indulge in the creative activity page of the newspaper.
12. Solve puzzles and read cartoon strips. Learn to make your own cartoons.
13. Mark the articles that have stories related to law and legal actions. Update your knowledge. Make notes.
14. Read news of activities conducted in various schools. Note down the dates of celebrations for important days in your notebook.
15. Cut out beautiful interesting pictures with title and paste it on a soft board or in your newspaper notebook for future reference.
When the school reopens, show this beautiful activity book to teachers. They will surely be delighted. These newspaper activities will make students emerge a better person without any doubt.

We often hear the term ‘Growth Mindset’ in relation to personality development and progress of an individual.
Growth mindset is one of the most wanted soft skills of the 21 st century. Today there is one employability skill to rule and that is the ‘Growth Mindset’. So it is extremely vital for students to develop a growth mindset for success.

Having a growth mindset means believing that a person’s abilities can be improved through effort, learning, and persistence. A growth mindset is all about the attitude with which a person faces challenges, how they process failures, and how they adapt and evolve as a result.

The future of workplaces is quite uncertain. According to a report, by 2030 more than 300 million people will have to learn new skills or change positions due to increased automation and mechanisation in the work place.

What is Growth Mindset?

Carol Dweck and her colleagues conducted a research on students’ attitude toward failure. The term “Growth Mindset” was coined by Dweck in the early 2000s to describe beliefs about intelligence and learning. During their study, they found that students cope with failure differently: some integrate the experience in their growth plan, while others simply get stuck. Although the theory stems from education, it quickly outgrew it and became integrated into all fields, including sports and workplace psychology.

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

Individuals with a fixed mindset believe in innate talents and gifts and do not devote a lot of time and energy to learning. They tend to avoid challenges out of fear of failure. What is more, a fixed mindset correlates with negative thinking, which can be detrimental to one’s psychological well-being. People with a fixed mindset usually attribute a lot of meaning to success, but especially to failure. They view failure – regardless of how small it may be – as a personal affront. They believe that failing means they are not good enough. And since intellect and talent are thought to be innate, there is nothing to do about this. Some adopt a defensive mechanism and deflect responsibility and blame to others.

In comparison, people with a growth mindset believe that talent and intellect are malleable and can be developed throughout their life. Thus, they focus more on hard work and learning. These individuals also tend to be more open to feedback from others than those with a fixed mindset.
Setbacks are viewed as an integral part of evolution, as opportunities to learn and improve future actions. People with a growth mindset use failure as motivation to better themselves and their performance. Through overcoming obstacles, they build resilience and boost their creativity. Therefore, failure is not charged with negative implications, as is the case for people with a fixed mindset.
(www.skillsyouneed.com)

Key Elements:
Following are the key elements of a growth mindset:
1) Intelligence can be developed.
2) Embrace challenges.
3) Persist in the face of setbacks.
4) See effort as a path to mastery.
5) Learn from criticism. Find inspiration in the success of others.

We at KES’ Sri TP Bhatia College of Science celebrate 22nd Dussehra pooja, also called Dasara or Vijayadashami, in Hinduism, marking the triumph of Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, over the 10-headed demon king Ravana, who abducted Rama’s wife, Sita. The festival’s name is derived from the Sanskrit words dasha (“ten”) and hara (“defeat”).

Dussehra marks the victory of good over evil and is observed on the Dashami Tithi of Shukla Paksha in the month of Ashwina. It is also a day of Shastra puja: Worship of tools and vehicles symbolised fortune and prosperity. You can clean and worship items like vehicles, weapons, machines, farming tools, pens and other items. So this explains our rituals on this auspicious day of the year. All the tools/ equipments in the vocational laboratories are worshipped.

Dussehra marks Lord Rama’s victory over Ravana, with many communities performing Ram-Leela plays before the festival. On Dussehra day, people create effigies of Ravana and his brothers, then burn them. This symbolizes the triumph of good over evil, teaching us that good actions will always conquer evil ones.

Today this festival has the same significance and relevance. The demon is no where but inside us and we have to destroy it by our will power and strength of character.

Every year since last 20 years, the staff, students and management Sri TP Bhatia college of Science celebrate the Navratri Festival by a grand Garba evening at sprawling ground of the college. Around 3000 plus people gather to dance non stop for four hours on the beats of a famous Garba Troupe. The songs are all folk and non filmy. The programme begins with a powerful prayer song of Goddess Durga. The evening is truly charged up and has a pious atmosphere throughout. Students are awarded many attractive prizes at the end of the programme based on their performances, dresses and team performances.

What is the significance of Garba festival?

Garba dances celebrate fertility, honour womanhood, and pay respect to any of an array of mother goddesses.

Garba comes from the Sanskrit word ‘garbha,’ which means womb. For the Gujaratis, the nine-day festival of Navratri is all about dancing and celebrating the feminine form of divinity. The dance was originally meant to honor Durga, also known as Amba, a powerful Indian goddess who protects the universe in times of crisis and defeats demons.

Navratri is celebrated differently in various regions of India . For many people it is a time of religious reflection and fasting, while for others it is a time for dancing and feasting. Among fasting customs are observing a strict vegetarian diet and abstaining from alcohol and certain spices.

The festival of Navratri, which spreads over 9 nights and 10 days, is one of the most revered festivals in Hinduism and celebrated during the autumn season. It lays importance on the worship of Goddess Durga or Shakti, which represents the energy of the universe, in her nine different forms.

Lessons To Learn From Goddess Durga:

• Maa Shakti. Goddess Durga is the mother of this universe and there are alot of things which we all can learn from her.
• Be Positive.
• Your Are Limitless.
• Be a Warrior.
• Never Give Up.
• Face Your Fear.
• Power Is Both Internal And External.

Dr Sangeeta Srivastava

World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year on 10 th October. World Mental Health Day is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health, a global mental health organization with members and contacts in more than 150 countries.
It is a day to talk about mental health and show everyone that mental health matters. It is also a day to let people know that it’s okay to ask for help, no matter what you’re going through.

The theme of this World Mental Health Day highlights, ‘mental health is a universal human right’.

World Mental Health Day 2023 is an opportunity for people and communities to unite behind the theme ‘Mental health is a universal human right” to improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a universal human right.
Mental health is a basic human right for all people. Everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has a right to the highest attainable standard of mental health. This includes the right to be protected from mental health risks, the right to available, accessible, acceptable, and good quality care, and the right to liberty, independence and inclusion in the community.
Good mental health is vital to our overall health and well-being. Yet one in eight people globally are living with mental health conditions, which can impact their physical health, their well-being, how they connect with others, and their livelihoods. Mental health conditions are also affecting an increasing number of adolescents and young people.

Mind is compared to the powerful wind and is difficult to control in the Bhagwad Gita chapter 6, verse 34, which was written thousands of years ago. Arjun says :

चञ्चलं हि मन: कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्दृढम् |
तस्याहं निग्रहं मन्ये वायोरिव सुदुष्करम् ||
chañchalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛiṣhṇa pramāthi balavad dṛiḍham
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye vāyor iva su-duṣhkaram

Translation: The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna. It appears to me that it is more difficult to control than the wind.

Arjun speaks for us all when he describes the troublesome mind. It is restless because it keeps flitting in different directions, from subject to subject. It is turbulent because it creates upheavals in one’s consciousness, in the form of hatred, anger, lust, greed, envy, anxiety, fear, attachment, etc. It is strong because it overpowers the intellect with its vigorous currents and destroys the faculty of discrimination. The mind is also obstinate because when it catches a harmful thought, it refuses to let go, and continues to ruminate over it again and again, even to the dismay of the intellect. Thus enumerating its unwholesome characteristics, Arjun declares that the mind is even more difficult to control than the wind. It is a powerful analogy for no one can ever think of controlling the mighty wind in the sky.

Today on the world mental health day I’m reminded of this discussion as in this scripture. Today it is more than relevant and as advised by Krishna to Arjun, Control of mind is everything.
Today medical science has answers to the complex behaviours of mind and there needs to be awareness regarding the mental health issues.
The World Mental Health Day 2023 campaign to learn more about your basic right to mental health as well as how to protect the rights of others.

The future of travel, employment and adventure is being shaped by robotics, one of the disciplines of technology developing the fastest. Things are getting even better thanks to ancillary developments in AI, computing, and IoT. Several innovative robotics technologies will play a significant part in daily living.

 

What is Robotics?

The area of engineering known as robotics is concerned with the creation, design, building, use, and application of robots. Future robotic technology is an automatically operated machine that performs a series of activities independently and completes tasks typically completed by humans.

Robots don’t necessarily look like people, though some do. The term “androids” is frequently used to refer to machines that resemble human traits.

 

Robots will continue evolving from simple rote machines to collaborative partners with cognitive capabilities due to increased sensor technology and more notable advancements in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). These advancements would be extremely beneficial for robotics.

 

The future of robotics and artificial intelligence will change our lives in several following areas:

• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Technologies
• Manufacturing
• Household
• Industrial
• Logistics
• Military
• Travel
• Entertainment
• Space Exploration
• Ocean Exploration etc.

 

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Robotics?

Artificial intelligence (AI) improves collaboration possibilities, quality, and human-robot interaction. Co-bots, robots that do testing and assembly alongside people, are already used in the industrial sector. Robot future artificial intelligence may act and think more like people and be more flexible and effective employees than humans.

 

Career Options in Robotics

For aspiring engineers, a career in robots can be immensely gratifying. The field provides various fascinating professions for robotics engineers due to the daily introduction of newer, quicker, and more intelligent robots. Join the rapidly expanding field today and participate in the revolution for the future of robotics in education.

Below are some fascinating career paths you can choose with an associate’s, graduate, or master’s degree in robotics.

• Robotics engineer
• Design engineer
• Computer scientist
• Electromechanical and Robotics technician
• Software engineer

 

By the 2030s, the future of robotics in manufacturing could be completely autonomous, from assembly to quality control, thanks to advancements in AI and the Internet of Things (IoT). Robot maintenance and operation will replace traditional jobs in this industry.

 

Future

The future of AI and Robotics will provide several fascinating opportunities with high pay and promising career advancement. Your chances of having a rewarding job in the industry can be further increased by formal education, certification, practical training, and work experience.