A problem solving experiment

Udhaifala is a tribal village located 15km from Sarada block of Udaipur, Rajasthan. The temperature in Rajasthan during summer rises up to 45ºC. There is no electricity supply to the school resulting in high humid inside classroom during summer and post-summer.

Udhaifala school at monsoons. Doesn't feel like Rajasthan right?

As part of Gandhi fellowship, I work in this primary school which consists 4 classrooms out of which only 2 is functional. It is very congested to seat all 83 students in two classrooms without electricity, resulting in lack of concentration among students and teacher often lose interest in classroom teaching.  

The proposed solution to the problem should be cost-effective and works practically without electricity. I strongly remember a Bangladeshi firm trying an experiment of making a zero electricity air cooler without electricity itself. After a small research, I came up with the know-how of the solution. 

So this is the how part of the air cooler

The bottle is cut into two equal halves and the upper half is inserted into the cartons through a small hole. The smaller hole of the bottle faces the classroom and the open-ended side of the bottle faces the wind outside the classroom. The hot air enters the open end of the bottle and gets compressed in the bottle's neck, making it cooker before it passes into the classroom. This air cooler is installed in the windows based on the wind direction and movement which can reduce the temperature inside the classroom up to 5° Celsius practically. 

It is the simplest process which can be implemented or adopted by anyone. It does not require any resources that are expensive and not accessible. The resources required for the implementation are waste plastic water or soft drink bottles and cartons.  Children were asked to bring the required things from the surroundings itself.  Waste bottles are collected from the trash, roadside and from their home. The raw material is easily available, therefore, making this air cooler is cost effective and environmentally friendly solution.

After observing, villagers started to replicate the same experiment at their respective houses. 

Making this air cooler is cost effective and environmentally friendly solution. The raw material is easily available therefore, it is a cheap and electricity free method to cool down the classroom running without electricity for years. We felt that by doing such activity it ignites the creativity and experimenting attitude of children. It is an effort to find solutions rather crib about the problem.

During demo session at the school. 

Students were explained how the zero electricity air cooler works through classroom intervention and teaching. We used "Design Thinking" approach to take this solution to children of a primary school.