One Teacher One Scientist
Engage Empower and Innovate
One Teacher One Scientist
Engage Empower and Innovate
About Us
One Teacher One scientist is an initiative started by Author and Educationist Vaishali Gupta in 2020. Since inception, OTOS ( as we simply call it) has been empowering parents and teachers through several online and offline offerings for privileged as well as under privileged sections of society. With a feeling that No Child Should be Left Behind in getting new age curricular materials and pedagogies, OTOS introduced its flagship Bridge programme called SLATE in 2020. After its pilot run, SLATE has helped NGOs mainstream as many as 10,000 plus children from marginalized communities. We have empowered volunteers and teachers through our teacher training workshops and sessions.
Seeing the positive impacts of activity-based learning through SLATE, we also created a unique activity based Computer Learning Programme for children from underprivileged backgrounds. Our SLATE Digital curriculum in partnership with our NGO partner SADRAG and noon in Switzerland, has empowered more than a hundred children so far. This is slowly helping bridge the Digital Gap in India.
At OTOS, we believe in Experiential and Constructivist Learning Approaches. Keeping the power of Activity Based, personalized and Self-directed learning processes, we’ve designed learning experiences for children to keep learning as real and authentic as possible. Our unique LIFE Walks have been exposing parents and children to the world of Experiential Learning as they unravel and discover STEAM ( Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) in Parks, Museums, Monuments and Water Bodies. Taking our passion for STEAM and Project based learning forward, we have created unique Offerings like STEAM Activity Cards and books on Scientific Drawing, Scientific Cooking, Scientific Reading and the kitty is growing. All these are aimed at building a Scientific Temper in children using their immediate environment as a learning Laboratory. Right from the beginning, children hone their skills of Observation, Comparing, Analysis, Inferencing, Hypothesizing, Experimenting and Innovating.
We also realize that for positive and long-term shifts to happen, our teachers need help and support. For all the Teachers and Educators out there, we would just like to say that ‘OTOS is there with you on your journey towards Empowerment from a Teacher to a Guru.’
One simple dream to help children experience and control their own learning as they Engage,Empower and Innovate
Our Story
It was a cold winter morning and en-route one of my workshops where I was sharing multiple active methods of teaching, I heard a voice within. Was it my intuition trying to reach out to me? Or was it a hangover from a bad night sleep? I was still recovering from the struggling experience I had with my sleep and the pandemonium of a wedding troupe the previous night, in the corridor outside my hotel room.
I finally decided to ignore all thoughts that keep welling inside my overactive subconscious and take a short nap on my way to the school. After all, every moment of catching up with the beauty sleep was more welcomed than dealing with an overactive mind. I had to conduct an experiential teaching workshop, and do justice to the 100 plus teachers waiting eagerly to hear me share some newer ideas on teaching science in classrooms, in this hot and humid southern part of my country.
Tucked into the back seat, I finally decided to doze off. But a strange vision covered my dream space. It was a divine intervention for sure, as I saw an angel descend with a message from the other realms that I had to work towards fulfilling a purpose. The whole experience was so overwhelming that I woke up startled. “The school is still a good half an hour away. You could perhaps rest madam.” was the gentle and concerned voice of the cab driver. But I was just too taken aback. Was it something I was imagining? Or a premonition or was it really a message for me, from the divine above? I continued the rest of the drive, immersed in this entire confusion. After being swept by this whole experience, I finally decided to break the trance and enter the conscious awareness of the physical world around me.
The teachers teach teachers workshop was about to begin and I could not possibly afford to continue in my hallucinating phase. I knocked some sense into my head and decided to brush the experience aside. However I think my intuitive self is perhaps too stubborn to let go.
Unknowingly, my subconscious or perhaps my intuition had taken over my physical being, as though completely connected to my inner self, I heard the organic flow of words: “I am starting a One Teacher One Scientist movement, to help teachers get motivated and give at least one scientist to their country, who will change the world”. It sounded more like a proclamation about which I had no idea. It was rather queer, and made me wonder what was in store? Somewhere my stubborn self found solace at the thought that perhaps it wasn’t mine. Then was it a platonic message? I have often experienced such moments when my intuition speaks to me like my true soul friend. I left the school, with some food for thought, needed to be explored deeper perhaps on some other day, after a physical recovery with a good night’s sleep!!!
Somewhere deep within my heart I knew a movement had begun! ” One Teacher One Scientist“ wondered my logical mind…. Hmm perhaps it’s not such a crazy thought after all! And if it has come from the subconscious, then perhaps the future script shall also unfold. With that leap of faith, I began exploring my own learning from all the work experience of a couple decades, and the exchange of ideas and thoughts at Universities like Harvard, and opened doors to enter the wonderful world of teaching and learning in a different avatar. Rest, only time will tell!!!
So welcome to the world of One Teacher One Scientist!!!
What do we do ?
Our unique LIFE Walks have been exposing parents and children to the world of Experiential Learning as they unravel and discover STEAM ( Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) in Parks, Museums, Monuments and Water Bodies.
Taking our passion for STEAM and Project based learning forward, we have created unique Offerings like STEAM Activity Cards and books on Scientific Drawing, Scientific Cooking, Scientific Reading and the kitty is growing. All these are aimed at building a Scientific Temper in children using their immediate environment as a learning Laboratory.