Zeal Educational Services Pvt. Ltd.

E-22, Takshashila Apartments, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380 015.

Tel: (079) 40036565, 98240-38938.

Email: zeal_edu@rediffmail.com

sandhya.sitaram@gmail.com

1
 Table of Contents
Table of Contents 2
3
About Zeal Educational Services 4
Zeal Educational Services was set up in September 2002 by Dr. B R
Sitaram and Ms. Sandhya Sitaram to provide specific educational
services to institutions. Since then, we have worked with schools in
Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Valsad, Kalol, Himmatnagar,
Mundra, Mahesana, Allahabad, Faizabad, Hyderabad, Udupi,
Guwahati and Dhaka (Bangladesh). Our main work has been
organising Teacher Interaction Workshops based on the Process
Approach to Learning. 4
Dr. Sitaram worked as a scientist at the Physical Research
Laboratory from 1983 to 1996 and as the Director of the Vikram
A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre from 1996 to 2002. His
main interests are in the teaching of science and mathematics and
in the use of computers in education. He was one of the chief
designers of the syllabus for the teaching of computers in Std.
VIII-X in the state of Gujarat and was the subject expert for the
textbooks for the same. He was also part of the State-level
Implementation committee for the same. He has served on
committees in Science education at the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, New Delhi. He is a Fellow of the Gujarat Science
Academy. 4
Ms. Sandhya Sitaram, a gold medallist (M.Sc. in Zoology) from
Bangalore University, taught Zoology in MES College, Bangalore
before shifting to computers. She has worked in various
organisations, including NIIT as a senior faculty member and
technical head of the Ahmedabad centre. She has been involved in
giving personalised training for Computer Engineering and MCA
students in languages like C, C++, Visual Basic and others. She has
also been running the Prosoft Children's Computer Club for over 15
years and has been a pioneer in the use of computers in Education
for children. She has also been a consultant for educational
software development. 5
How can we get involved with schools? / How exactly will the schools

benefit from our involvement? 26

2
What is the duration of our work with a school? 28

Some comments about our Workshops and Training Programs 29

Some Schools that we have worked with 35

The Children’s Computer Club - Parents’ Comments 38

3
 About Zeal Educational Services

Zeal Educational Services was set up in September 2002 by

Dr. B R Sitaram and Ms. Sandhya Sitaram to provide specific

educational services to institutions. Since then, we have

worked with schools in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara,

Valsad, Kalol, Himmatnagar, Mundra, Mahesana, Allahabad,

Faizabad, Hyderabad, Udupi, Guwahati and Dhaka

(Bangladesh). Our main work has been organising Teacher

Interaction Workshops based on the Process Approach to

Learning.

Dr. Sitaram worked as a scientist at the Physical Research

Laboratory from 1983 to 1996 and as the Director of the

Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre from 1996 to

2002. His main interests are in the teaching of science and

mathematics and in the use of computers in education. He

was one of the chief designers of the syllabus for the

teaching of computers in Std. VIII-X in the state of Gujarat

and was the subject expert for the textbooks for the same.

He was also part of the State-level Implementation

committee for the same. He has served on committees in

4
Science education at the Ministry of Human Resource

Development, New Delhi. He is a Fellow of the Gujarat

Science Academy.

Ms. Sandhya Sitaram, a gold medallist (M.Sc. in Zoology)

from Bangalore University, taught Zoology in MES College,

Bangalore before shifting to computers. She has worked in

various organisations, including NIIT as a senior faculty

member and technical head of the Ahmedabad centre. She

has been involved in giving personalised training for Computer

Engineering and MCA students in languages like C, C++, Visual

Basic and others. She has also been running the Prosoft

Children's Computer Club for over 15 years and has been a

pioneer in the use of computers in Education for children.

She has also been a consultant for educational software

development.

5
 Our Focus Area

Students (children, teenagers, adults) learn best when

they are motivated, convinced about the need to learn

something, when they are excited and eager to know,

when they are challenged and most importantly when

they are having fun.

All our activities focus on incorporating these

characteristics.

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 What Do We Do?

• We are Consultants to schools that are eager to implement

the process approach to learning especially science,

mathematics and computers. We work with teachers and

sometimes with students.

• We run a Children’s Computer Club

• We impart Personalized Training in Computer Programming

to students from 6th to 10th Standard, 11th and 12th

Standard Students who take Computer Science as a subject,

Engineering students and MCA students

• We conduct Workshops

o I Love Maths ( Class 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

o Tiny Tots having Fun with Science ( Class 1 and 2)

o Tiny Scientists Exploring Science (Class 3 and 4)

o Little Scientists Exploring Science (Class 5 and 6)

o Young Scientists Exploring Science(Class 7 and above)

• We work as Consultants to Educational Software

Companies for content designing for educational software

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Tiny Tots Having
Fun with Science

8
 How do we make education meaningful in each of

these activities?
• As Consultants to Schools

• Short term (one time): Conduct workshops for teachers

on

o The Process Approach to Learning

o How to set up a Mathematics Laboratory

• Long Term:

o To review and critically examine existing practices in

the school

o To develop lesson plans

o To develop assignments

o To design evaluation and feedback materials

o To design and select suitable equipment for activities

o To design extra-curricular activities like exhibitions,

fairs, dramas in science and mathematics, clubs and wall

magazines

o To set up the Young Scientists’ and the Young

Mathematicians’ Clubs and discuss possible research

projects that students at various levels can take up

9
 o To discuss pedagogical issues in teaching IT in the

school

o To develop suitable examples and projects for use in

teaching IT;

o To evaluate the implementation of the program from

time to time by our attending actual classroom sessions

Kindly Note: All the above activities are tailor made based

on the needs of the school in question.

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 The Children’s Computer Club
• We use computers as a tool to excite a child’s imagination and

curiosity to learn.

• We use hundreds of excellent educational software to help

children learn their school subjects

• We use several other software that encourage children

explore many thinking skills that are not normally possible in

school. This kind of an approach leads to overall development.

• We make children (class 6 onwards) learn computer

programming in Visual BASIC by making them create game

programs

• We normally begin by having a detailed talk with the child’s

parents in an attempt to understand the child. Based on this

and our continuous interaction with the child and its parents,

we take the child through a course unique to that child. Thus,

no two children go through a standard course.

• The children who have been enrolled in our club vary

considerably in age and interests. The youngest child was

around 3 ½ years old when he joined us, while the oldest was

around 15 years old.

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• We run the Young Expert Certification courses like The Young

Artist, The Young Designer, The Young Writer, The Young

Info Manager, The Young Programmer, etc.

• Each member is provided with reports of two kinds:

1. Session wise Report: Here the parent is informed about

the activities taken up the child in every session and

comments about the child’s performance

2. Unit wise Evaluation Report: After the child completes a

unit (24 sessions), a detailed report about various skills is

provided and discussed with parents.

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 Sample Evaluation Report

Name: Prasham
Class: Jr.Kg.
Jobanputra
School: Children’s Nook
Date: 18/2/08

Computer usage skills

Evaluation Report
Mouse usage skills

10 Key board usage skills

9 Numerical skills

Phonetics/Sounds
8
Spellings
7
Vocabulary
6
Value out of 10

General Knowledge

5
Eagerness to learn new things

4 Concentration

3 Attention Span

Logical skills
2
Creativity
1
Comprehension
0
Interaction and Communication with
Criteria
other members of the Club

Remarks:
Prasham is a very polite, always smiling and a well-behaved member of our computer
club. He has improved a lot in phonics and sounds in a very short period of time. He
is always ready to try new spellings on his own. He enjoys all the activities given to
him. He is good at logic activities. He likes to do drawing in ‘Paint’. Now he knows
how to explore new software on his own.

Sandhya Sitaram
Director

13
The Children’s
Computer Club

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T h e W o r k s h o p s
I Love Maths

This is a year long workshop

where children meet twice a

week. In each session we

facilitate exploring,

discovering and learning

mathematical concepts.

Children do a lot of activities and play games in the process. In

addition to the testing assignments, they are also given

assignments that are exploratory in nature. Students are

regularly and personally monitored, meetings with parents are

held and steps to take corrective measures are discussed. The

content is entirely based on the syllabus for a particular class

and therefore we have different batches for different

classes.

I Love Maths
Class V
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 Tiny Tots Having Fun with Science

This is a 10 session workshop meant for children of class 1 and

2. The objectives of the workshop are to ignite children’s

curiosity and to make them observe the world around them and

to realize that there is a lot of fun while doing simple

experiments.

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 Tiny Scientists Exploring Science

This is a 10 session workshop meant for children of class 3 and

4. The objectives of this workshop are to ignite children’s

curiosity and to make them observe the world around them and

to realize that there is a lot of fun while doing simple

experiments. Children are also encouraged to question and

reason the processes they observe.

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 Little Scientists Exploring Science

This is an 18 hour workshop meant for children of class 5 and

6. This workshop aims at posing problems to children and

forcing them to think. During the process of finding the

answers to questions, children may do experiments,

calculations, make models or simply reason using various

thinking skills like observation, pattern recognition, logical

reasoning, forming hypothesis, and so on. At the end of each

session, two students are appointed to make a report on the

proceedings of the session, how they discovered the answer

and how they felt about the whole experience. The report is

presented in the following session and the rest of the students

are allowed to comment on it.

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 Young Scientists Exploring Science

This is an 18 hour workshop meant for children of class 7 and

8. This workshop aims at posing problems to children and

forcing them to think. During the process of finding the

answers to questions, children may do experiments,

calculations, make models or simply reason using various

thinking skills like observation, pattern recognition, logical

reasoning, forming hypothesis, and so on. At the end of each

session, two students are appointed to make a report on the

proceedings of the session, how they discovered the answer

and how they felt about the whole experience. The report is

presented in the following session and the rest of the students

are allowed to comment on it.

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Some Sample Reports by the Little and the Young
Scientists

The Young Scientist

Session 1
22nd June 2003

Our first topic of the day was why the moon appears to be following us while we
move. We had thought of many reasons for why this might be so. Some of our
hypotheses were as follows:
• The moon and the earth are rotating at the same speed,
• The size of the moon and
• The distance of the moon from us.

We pondered about the theories for a while. We

found that none of the hypotheses was convincing.
Then we did an experiment. We looked at objects
that were at various distances from us and observed
the following.
• When an object was very close to us and when we
moved a few steps to the left or right, we had to
turn our head quite a bit to be able to see the
object.
• As the object was kept further and further away, we had to turn our heads less
and less when we moved to the left or to the right.
From this we concluded that the reason the moon seems to follow us is that it is
very far away and as we keep looking at the moon we do not need to tilt our heads
at all, so the moon appears to be following us.

Then we made cards out of iron filings and some magnets. By placing the magnet
under the card the magnetic field of the magnets were activated. Then we spread
the iron filings on the top of the card. The filings were immediately attracted
towards the magnet making a very beautiful design. By gluing the filings and letting
them dry the card was done!

Joshua Pandian
Standard VIII
Delhi Public School

Exploring Science
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The Little Scientist

Session 7

13th Nov.2002.
On Wednesday we learnt about

Archimedes and Archimedes principle. We

did some experiments to find the volume of

objects. We took a measuring cylinder. We

filled it up to 210 ml. We took a nut and

put it in the water. The water level rose.

We noted the new level of water in the

cylinder, for example, 215 ml. Then we

calculated 215ml - 210ml and got 5ml as the volume of the nut.

We also did an experiment to find out how much weight is lost when we put an

object in water. For this, we took a spring balance and tied the nut to it. We

measured the weight. Then we dipped in to the water and measured the weight

again. It had lost some of its weight because the water was helping it to float. We

all had a good time.

Thank you.

Vishwesh Majithia
Standard IV
Udgam School

Exploring Science

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 What is unique about our work?

There are three ways of making students learn.

• Teaching and Learning Approach

In this approach the teacher is the active person in the

knowledge construction and the students are passive listeners.

This leads to boredom and lack of sense of achievement for

the students. There is no opportunity for confidence building.

When students are tested, it is only to check whether they

have learnt up whatever the teacher has already taught.

• Teaching, Verifying and Learning Approach

This is also called the Activity Approach. Here both the

teacher and the students are actively involved in the session.

The teacher still teaches the concepts and makes the students

verify concepts taught by doing activities. It is better than

the earlier approach because the students have some fun while

doing something in addition to just listening to the teachers.

Also the learning done by verifying is retained for a longer

time.

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• Exploring, Discovering and Learning Approach

This approach is very different although it is often mistaken

for the Activity Approach. Here the students are more active

than the teacher in the session. The teacher truly plays the

role of a facilitator. The teacher starts the session by posing a

question or an exploring activity that leads the students to

observe reason and infer. The teacher then gathers all the

knowledge constructed in bits and pieces by the students and

summarizes it formally and reinforces it through assignments

and tests. This approach results in developing self confidence

and a sense of achievement among students. This also

encourages students to acquire various kinds of thinking skills

and other soft skills. This is also called the Doing and

Becoming Approach. For example, if a science concept is to be

understood, the students actually become scientists and do

science instead of just being taught by the teacher. If

something in history needs to be understood, the students

actually become historians and study history rather than just

being taught by the teacher some facts.

Our Exploring, Discovering and Learning approach is what

makes our work unique.

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Why do schools need us as Educational Consultants? / What

are the existing constraints in the present day modern

school?

Most modern schools today are realizing the need for a better

education system in terms of

• providing better physical infrastructure so that the learning

environment becomes attractive to children

• making a lot of effort in training and orienting existing

teachers and new recruits so that they can truly facilitate

the joys of learning by providing a student friendly,

stimulating, enriching and intellectually challenging

environment for students

While providing better physical infrastructure is straight

forward, ensuring that innovative methodologies are

appropriately implemented has become a challenging task.

After having worked with children for more than a decade and

several schools for the last 6 years, we have come to the

conclusion that in order for the teachers to work in

conformation with the training, it requires a change in attitude

and orientation as the first step. This phase takes a

24
considerable amount of time. Teachers cannot be expected to

bring about the change all by themselves. They require hand

holding and reinforcement of the concepts they have been

introduced to in the training if they have undergone training.

They also need to be shown how to implement the process

approach according to the conditions that exist in their own

school. This is where we can bridge the gap as consultants.

25
How can we get involved with schools? / How exactly will
the schools benefit from our involvement?
Our role would be as follows.

• Studying the existing system by observing classroom

sessions

• Providing detailed reports to the school management about

the study on a regular basis

• Continuously emphasizing the difference between the

activity approach and the exploring approach through

regular demonstration sessions with the teachers on various

topics

• Working on lesson planning with teachers

• Seeing to it that the lesson plan is implemented

appropriately through continuous feedback

• Working with teachers on how to create innovative

assignments and tests

• Working with teachers on how to interpret performance and

give feedback to the students and parents

• Working on how to take personalized corrective measures on

students for better performance

• Reporting to the management on the ongoing activities

within our framework

26
• Helping teachers launch Activity clubs like the Computer

Club, Science Club, Math Club, Art Club, Language Club and

so on

• Helping the school in conducting quizzes, plays in science and

mathematics

Each school’s requirements are different. How exactly we

get involved with a school would depend on the school’s

requirements and priorities.

27
What is the duration of our work with a school?
The duration varies with the targets that the school and Zeal

Education set. However, the ideal time required to bring about

tangible positive changes in the system is 2 years. The logistics

would be worked out in consultation with the school

management and the teachers.

The Teacher Interaction Workshop

held at Oxford International School,
Dhaka in 2006

28
Some comments about our Workshops and Training Programs

“My comment at the final training session that it had met all

my expectations and hopes, and a lot more, was no idle

comment. I think it has set a very positive foundation for

transformation for all the teachers who attended. This will be

reinforced by the online support over the coming months to

ensure that these teachers can feel the full confidence and

support to go ahead and dramatically upgrade their teaching

methodologies by adding an array of alternatives beyond the

confines of traditional dogma.”

- Mark Parkinson, Principal and Head,

Oxford International School, Dhaka

“Dr Sitaram and Mrs Sandhya Sitaram also addressed the

participants at an International Symposium we organized in our

school last year. Their presentation was rated high by the

participants. To sum up, the Sitaram couple makes a great

resource team for school teachers."

- Mathew C. Ninan

Principal, Little Rock

29
“Dr. B R Sitaram & Sandhya Sitaram conducted a series of

workshops in 2004-05 with our teachers and students. Dr.

Sitaram’s workshops were in Science & Mathematics. Sandhya

worked in the area of Computers. . They used to visit the

school for 2 days in a month. In his workshops with teachers,

he would touch upon various topics and areas which were

conceptually difficult and bring out the underlying ideas

through discussions and demonstrations. He also showed them

the wealth of materials available on the Web like lesson plans,

animations etc.

With students he used to have demonstrations based on

scientific principles and help students perceive and understand

them through probing questions and discussions.

Ms. Sandhya helped our computer teachers to completely

revise our Computer Studies curriculum from classes 2 to 8 so

that it develops logical thinking and creativity.”

Sundaram Subbharatnam, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya, Atul

(Valsad)

“Thank you very much for accepting our invitation and coming

over to our school and conducting the workshop for our

teachers. After interacting with my teachers, I am happy with

the kind of feedback they gave me about the concepts, the

30
teaching techniques, lesson plans, the various slide shows,

website details, resources, etc. that you shared with them in

the I phase of the workshop.

During most of the workshops, it’s always a challenge for the

faculty to reach out, involve and take along all the participants

which I heard was well carried out by you both. I along with my

colleagues convey our heartfelt gratitude for all knowledge you

have imparted and the activities you shared with them. It was

a very learning and enjoyable experience for all of them. Hope

you too, had a good time.

Looking forward for many more such fruitful associations with

you and your organization. I would be happy if you could send

us some handouts of the concepts, teaching techniques, etc.

you shared with them. Thanks again.”

M L Pauly, Principal, Zydus School for Excellence,

Ahmedabad.

“One week is not enough for learning or getting benefit from

this program. I hope and wish we will be able to join this kind

of program more in future. “

- Hasan Eman, Oxford International School, Dhaka

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“This interactive workshop inspires participants to be

motivated as they can play a role of a team leader in a creative

learning game which is nothing but a class. Thanks to the

program organizer for presenting learning process which is a

well organized doing process and easy to implement. “

- Dr. Anupam Das Burman, Oxford International School,

Dhaka

“The workshop had many thought provoking questions. It

helped me realize the importance of generating a process

based teaching methodology to facilitate the understanding of

students”

- Hiral Mody – The Galaxy International School, Rajkot

Teachers and Heads of Oxford

International School, Dhaka along
with Zeal Education Team in 2006

32
“We would like to have more of such sessions. I liked the part

where we solved simple problems observed in daily life. The

tricks in mathematics were fantastic. Reasoning has been

enhanced. “

- Mrinalini Rao – SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

“The workshop was excellent. It helped me a lot as to how to

introduce certain topics or how to make certain concepts

teach in a simple way. I would like you to give some ideas as

how to teach theorems to higher standards.”

- Kavitha Somu – SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

“This workshop had been an excellent brainstorming session &

it helped me to think in the way mathematicians and Scientists

might have approached to the solution of various problems.

More examples may be discussed & frequent workshops of this

sort shall be of great help in teaching.”

- Ratish Ravindran Nair – SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

33
“I would like to attend more of the kind of workshops to meet

my personal learning objectives and to develop conceptual

understanding among the students. It would be more helpful if

we have a continuous one-week time for such a useful

workshop. I felt that due to time constraint many topics that

I would have liked being discussed were not possible.”

- Manisha Upadhyay – MVD School, Rajkot

“Excellent program. I only wish we could do this in a more

comprehensive manner – subject wise & topic wise especially

for Physics, Chemistry. This should be a yearlong program with

monthly, fortnightly sessions running parallel with sessions in

class. Also continuous classroom interaction should be there.

Thanks.”

- Swati Faldu – TGIS

34
Some Schools that we have worked with

• Oxford International School, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2

September 2006 to 8 September 2006.

The Oxford International School is a CIE school with

about 2000 students. Following the 6-day workshop, we

are interacting with teachers on the Net, assisting them

with creating lesson plans in science and mathematics.

• Amrit Vidyalaya, Kalol, Gujarat, India, monthly visits from

June 2005 to present.

Run by a private trust, Amrut Vidyalaya is a small school in

a very small town that has big ambitions. The school runs

a very innovative Process of Inquiry based education

program for its students. In October 2005, the school

had a very successful 2-day fair where students put up,

among other programs, a science drama and 2

mathematics skits. Although the story-line was given by

us, the extremely innovative staff and students wrote the

35
 script and even some songs for the dramas and enacted

them very well!

• Atul Vidyalaya, Atul, Gujarat, India, monthly visits from

October 2004 to April 2005.

Situated in the small town of Valsad, South Gujarat, Atul

is rated as among the best ICSE schools in the country.

Headed by Mr. Sundaram, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad,

the school is run professionally and has an excellent

academic record.

• Little Rock Indian School, Bhramavar, Karnataka, India,

20 December 2004 to 22 Decmber 2004.

LRIS is a very big school (about 2000 students) situated

near a very small town in South Karnataka. The school

enjoys such a reputation that students come from far

away just to study here. The extremely dynamic principal,

Mr. Mathew Ninan, regularly organises workshops, not only

for his staff, but also for staff of neighbouring schools.

• J G International School, Ahmedabad

• St. Mary's Convent School, Ghoorpur, Allahabad, India, 1

April 2005 to 7 April 2005. Once again, a school situated

36
 in a small town near Allahabad. The school manages to

attract a large number of students from Allahabad

because of the excellence of its education programs.

• Zydus School for Excellence, Ahmedabad, June

2007

• SN Kansagara School, Rajkot

37
The Children’s Computer Club - Parents’ Comments

1. “I am quite happy. Our child enjoys being a part of the Zeal

family.”

Mrs. Sunaina Tomar, mother of Esha Tomar of Class V.

2. “I am very much thankful to everybody for putting efforts

for my son. He has improved a lot. His thinking skills,

creativity skills, vocabulary, etc. has improved a lot. His

comfort ability of operating computer is great. He enjoys a

lot. He also loves special programs on Maths and Science.

Overall I am very satisfied and happy to send my son to

such a Computer Club. I wish everybody good luck and hope

that they continue to be the best and outstanding Computer

Club. Once again thanks a lot for putting lot of efforts in my

child.”

Mrs. Payal Shah, mother of Hrishee Shah of Class I

3. “Its fantafabulous. She didn’t know what a computer is

before coming to Zeal Education – Children’s Computer Club.

38
 But now she seems to be teaching her friends. She waits for

Tuesdays and Fridays for her class coz she loves to come

here.”

Mrs. Jigna Bavishi, mother of Aashna Bavishi of Class Sr.

Kg.

4. “He has become more computer savvy and it helps him with

his school activities. More practice is given for subjects

taught i.e. maths and computers.”

Mrs. Neha V Shah, mother of Rahul Shah of Class V.

5. “I like the concept (method) which is going on there and

teachers are also good and cooperative with parents and

even have good English. One thing is you must plan a

practical test every three months for the child and with

their mothers individually so that mother comes to know

where the child has progressed and what he has learnt in

computers and then evaluation reports does say it, but

seeing the child doing it on computer makes a difference. As

Prasham learnt how to explore new software on his own I

believe but practically seeing him exploring new software

39
 will make me feel happier. Thanking you for all. Thanks to all

the teachers.”

Mrs. Priti A. Jobanputra, mother of Prasham Jobanputra of

Class Jr. Kg.

6. “We are glad to send our son there. Everything is excellent.

Keep it up. “

Mrs. Falguni C. Patel, mother of Krish Patel of Class I.

7. “My daughter likes coming to her Computer Club and she

does all her work with enthusiasm. So I am also very much

satisfied.”

Mrs. Stuti K. Gala, mother of Anushka Gala, of Class I.

8. “Your classes are worth joining and I am pleased to see

Yashvi’s growth.”

Mrs. Alka V. Patel, mother of Yashvi Patel of Class II.

9. “You all are doing good job, just that they need more

computer practice in using technical terms. I thank you all

for all that you are doing, and I even appreciate for

understanding her individually.”

40
Mrs. Bhairavi Patel, mother of Michelle Patel, of Class II.

41