Blooming curiosity: Aaradhya Alva documents tiny wild flowers while watching her brother Ahaan, turning a quiet moment into a shared lesson on observing tiny flowers.

Mangaluru: : Mangaluru: Swapping mobile screens for fieldwork, a Class 10 student from Puttur documented 21 tiny wild flowers in and around her home during her summer vacations, and compiled them into a booklet titled ‘The Beauty of Tiny Wild Flowers’.The booklet, its first volume, documents 21 small wild flowers observed at Panchapaddi near Savanur in Kadaba taluk of Dakshina Kannada district.Encouraged by the experience, Aaradhya now aims to continue this project during the monsoon and bring out a second volume featuring the flowers that bloom during the rainy season.Aaradhya is the daughter of Vivek Alva, a graphic designer, and Smita V Alva, a lecturer in Botany at Philomena Degree College, Puttur. The family is a resident of Savanur, Kadaba. The couple, who previously organized summer camps for children, have followed a practice at home since Aaradhya was in Class 5 – ensuring that every vacation included a meaningful project for skill building.Vivek explains, “This project was designed to help my children understand the process of research. We initially considered a number of topics before deciding to document small wild flowers. The idea was to encourage observation, investigation and learning with nature.” times of India.Aaradhya’s younger brother, Ahaan, a Class 5 student, also contributed to the project. After basic training in photography and artificial intelligence tools, Aaradhya photographed flowers using an iPhone. He completed his fieldwork with information from the Internet, while his mother guided him in identifying and understanding botanical aspects.This is not Aaradhya’s first research-based project. Before this she worked on documenting the creatures found in forests. Vivek said, “As parents, we believe that children should understand the value of learning through hard work and experience. Projects like this help them become independent learners.”Aaradhya said, “The beauty of these tiny flowers is incredible. Most people pass by without noticing them, but I really enjoyed researching and learning about them. Now I am eagerly waiting for the rains so that I can discover and document even more flowers.”Since both parents have written books, the possibility of publishing a booklet is being explored. booklet will be released world environment day On 5th June.