In today’s busy times, not everybody or every organization has the patience to shell out time, effort, money which are the three pre requisites of doing something good for needy people. One of those efforts can be seen as Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED), which is a noble venture of Schlumberger, a renowned Oilfield company, towards furthering the educational needs of the underprivileged students in different parts of the world.
Schlumberger operates in more than 85 countries and SEED is born out of the interests of its employees who voluntarily want to reach out to the underpriviledged students, who have a passion for learning and technology. It a volunteer-based, nonprofit education program focused on underserved communities where Schlumberger people live and work.
SEED focuses on Science and technology which is the backbone of Schlumberger, since its inception, which was about 80 years back. Whether it is setting up of science labs or libraries or alternative modes of imparting education, SEED tries to reach out to the underprivileged schools and identifies development areas. It follows the learning-while-doing (LWD) methodology draws on the technology and science expertise of our volunteers to engage students in global issues, such as water, energy and climate change.
In India, it has touched touched the lives of thousands of children not just in places like Mumbai, Baroda, Delhi and Chennai but also in the remotest of places like Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh and Duliajan and Nazira in Upper Assam. SEED regularly conducts Inter-school drawing competitions and quiz competitions to bring out the latent talent in the children and to empower them with the latest knowledge. Last January saw a brand new library and a computer lab in Bortola High School in Nazira, Assam. The Brand new books and the computer enthused the children who had a keen interest in growing.
A variety of educational programs offer students and educators in SEED network schools hands-on workshops and online activities and projects using a project-based, approach. In some of the cases SEED provides computer laboratories to the schools which are connected to the internet. Students and teachers of SEED — connected schools interact with each other through forums like webinars, interactive polls, online competitions which are integral part of the SEED website — www.planetseed.com. Interested volunteers can register on this website and contribute in many ways towards all such activities.
One such annual event is the global artwork competition whereby all SEED-schools across the world participate. Students make artwork on a particular theme and in the end prizes are given and the selected artwork make to the annual greeting card. Last year the theme was environment and was a huge success in not only the massive participation but generating awareness of this important global issue. On a whole, SEED has a uniqueness of its own. It does the unique job of boosting technology in the country, which drives the future.
Image courtesy:Â http://www.earthsciweek.org/forteachers/2010/EnergyEfficiency_May_cont.html