Mobile Creativity Labs: Scaling STEAM Across India

May 14, 2025 00:40:31
Mobile Creativity Labs: Scaling STEAM Across India
Ethical Schools
Mobile Creativity Labs: Scaling STEAM Across India

May 14 2025 | 00:40:31

/

Show Notes

We speak with Dr. David Penberg and Adhirath Sethi about Agastya, a unique educational ecosystem serving students and teachers in 22 Indian states. Agastya has a hub-and-spokes design, with an elaborate 172-acre campus outside Bangalore and a fleet of mobile vans and bicycles delivering science and art programming to poor and rural children in far-flung towns and villages.

Overview

00:00-00:43 Intros

00:43-03:26 Agastya’s programs

03:26-04:51 Arts and interdisciplinary learning environment

04:51-07:58 Teacher training

07:58-11:10 Young Instructional Leader program

11:10-11:52 Ages of girls who started the YIL program

11:52-13:33 Where the YIL do their work

13:33-17:02 Teachers learning in the ways that students learn

17:02-18:43 Alignment with Nell Noddings’s “ethic of care”

18:43:21:48 Relationships with animals other than human

21:48-24:09 Common elements with schools like Central Park East in different settings

24:09-26:14 Agastya relationships based on trust

26:14-27:27 Agastya as a source of inspiration

27:27-29:07 Agastya’s vision of reaching more children

29:07-30:33 Relevance to U.S.

30:33-35:49 Measuring success

35:49-38:19 Adhirath’s book about Agastya: The Moving of Mountains

38:19- Outro

Transcript

Click here to listen to the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Soundtrack by Poddington Bear

Other Episodes

Episode 0

September 17, 2020 00:51:00
Episode Cover

Parent voice: Supporting families with special needs

Ellen McHugh, long time activist and Public Advocate Williams’s appointee to the NYC Citywide Council on Special Education, delves into the challenges facing parents ...

Listen

Episode 0

March 18, 2020 00:29:30
Episode Cover

Creating a safe haven: Changing lives after school

Jason Garcia of SoBro, a South Bronx community-based organization, describes how after school staff members help young people deal with the effects of trauma. ...

Listen

Episode

March 22, 2024 00:34:19
Episode Cover

Solving teacher shortages: It’s not just pay (Encore)

Drs. Katherine Norris and  Kathryn Wiley, colleagues at Howard University’s School of Education, speak about obstacles to recruiting and retaining teachers and increasing diversity....

Listen