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!
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.