Project - Cardboard Model of Parijata - 2024-25
Creating a scale model of a building
Building with cardboard is much more than a craft project - it’s a demonstration of how mathematics, design thinking, and community spirit come together in our way of learning. At Farm Hill, learning with the hands and mind is a conversation with the world. This project captures the heart of our approach, combining our constructivist approach to education and the simple joys of genuine discovery and creation.
Building Parijata: More Than Just a Model
The process children followed - in sketching, planning, measuring, and constructing Parijata from cardboard - translates abstract mathematical ideas into lived, physical experience. A ruler in the hand becomes a tool not just for drawing lines, but for imagining proportions, calculating area, and thinking through relationships between shapes and spaces. These children are quietly, joyfully doing geometry: converting meters to centimeters, visualizing 3D forms from blueprints, and reasoning about symmetry and scale. A question like “Will this wall stand?” opens a window into physics, material science, and collaborative problem solving.
Learning in Action: The Farm Hill Philosophy
At Farm Hill, learning emerges from real questions, not just from the syllabus and textbooks. The act of building - whether it’s a vegetable bed in the garden or a cardboard model of a building - connects math and science to the pulse of everyday life. Mistakes are not failures, but invitations to explore “What went wrong?” Each child brings ideas, tries out a role, and finds space to ask, “What happens if I do it this way?” This project threads together individual strengths, fostering collaboration, persistence, and reflective thinking, all at the child’s own pace.
This video below captures the full process!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq2abUPUk5k
Modeling as Mathematical Storytelling
Mathematical modeling is about more than numbers—it is about making sense of the world. In turning Parijata’s architecture into a model, the children are telling the story of a building, one measurement at a time. They are making decisions about which details matter, which measurements are crucial, and how to simplify complexity without losing meaning. This nurtures mathematical communication, spatial reasoning, and the all-important belief that “I can make sense of the world with mathematics”.
The Voice of Farm Hill: Learning with Geethika
If one were to wander past the classroom and into the garden, one might hear Geethika asking, “How can we build these steps?”, or reminding a child gently, “Try measuring that again - let’s see if you get the same number.” There is laughter, a bit of friendly arguing about which piece should go where, and much hands-on, hearts-in learning. Here, understanding grows quietly, like a seed in the soil, among friends, cardboard, stories, and sunlight.
At Farm Hill, a cardboard model is not just about the cardboard or the building. It is math you can touch, teamwork you can feel, and a memory of learning that is truly alive.