Magic Bus

Logo

Website

magicbus.org
magicbusUSA.org

Countr(ies)

India

Grade Level of Students Participating

Grades 5 to 12 and post-secondary students (up to students in their early 20s)

Number of Students Participating per Year

400,000 children + 8,000 youth volunteers reached weekly

Year Organization Began

1999

Relationship to the public education system

Independent from the public education system, but partners with schools and educational non-profits to operate within the infrastructure of the schools. 

Organization’s Vision and Mission

Magic Bus purposes to steer children towards a better life with better awareness, better life skills, and better opportunities, in the journey from childhood to livelihood.

By using an "Activity-Based Curriculum based curriculum to teach lessons related to education, gender, health and key issues affecting them, children will be more empowered with better life skills and will have greater opportunities in the workplace.

Brief Description of Program Activities

Children engage in an "Activity-Based Curriculum (ABC)" to use games to educate children in engaging ways about health, education, leadership, and gender issues.

Program Content: Intrapersonal Competencies

Confidence, Self-Awareness, Self-Efficacy, Grit/Resilience, Patience

Program Content: Interpersonal Competencies

Teamwork, communication, collaboration, listening

Program Content: Cognitive Competencies

Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Motor Skills  

Program Content: Attitudes and Values

Sense of responsibility, Right to play, Respecting others

Program Content: Pedagogy/Active Engagement of Students

Magic Bus’s “Activity Based Curriculum (ABC)” uses games to make change in students’ lives. The curriculum is composed of 40 sessions per year. Each session includes a lesson that teaches students about education, gender, health, and key issues affecting their lives. The games used to deliver the sessions help students build physical, social, and personal skills.  

The sessions each last for two hours with one Community Youth Leader (CYL) per 25 children. The curriculum is written so that there is a clear structure for the CYL conducting the session to follow. Aligned content for conducting sessions with the parents of MagicBus children has also been written in acknowledgement of the home being a critical part of the child’s learning2.

Each session is broken down into six areas3:

  1. Ice breaker - which could be a song or a quick activity to make children comfortable, break inhibitions, energize and create a congenial environment for what is to follow.
  2. Sporting game - which introduces or develops some sporting skill or technique.
  3. Anticipatory hook - which brings the focus towards the main objective and prepares the children for the message to be introduced in the main activity. The anticipatory hook is energizing and sometimes uses theme songs which remain common across an objective.
  4. Main game – which aims to achieve the main objective with the help of a metaphor for each session. The metaphor allows the children an opportunity to compare a relationship that is evident in the activity with another relationship from their real life.
  5. Sit-breathe-think – which is incorporated in each session so that children get an opportunity to learn thinking and listening skills, deep breathing, patience, upright posture, expressing one’s opinions and respecting others opinions.
  6. Take away – which is stated at the end of each session and helps the facilitator to summarize the specific key message that emerges from that session which children can directly relate to and apply in their lives.

Additional Information

Local youth volunteers are trained to be mentors and role models to other children. They conduct the “Activity-Based Curriculum” sessions and act as catalysts for community change.

Reference List

  1. Unless noted otherwise, information provided on the table is based on the MagicBus website (www.magicbus.org) and information provided by Rakhi Patel, Business Development & Communications, at Magic Bus USA
  2. http://www.magicbusuk.org/what-we-do/our-curriculum/
  3. Ibid