Pixellated Murals – Mosaics with 3×3 puzzle cubes
Pixellated Murals involves creating mosaics with the 3×3 puzzle cubes (popularly known as Rubik’s cubes). Since April of 2023, the project is being implemented at Innovative Pathshala, an education center for underprivileged children located at Bhawanigunj slum Lucknow city. Hundreds of school-age slum children have been introduced to the puzzle cube toy and they have made more than 400 mosaics.
Getting slum children to come to school
People living in slums are typically daily-wagers who leave for work early in the morning. The men work as masons, painters, or labourers, while women work as house maids. The children are left to their own devices or in care of disinterested guardians. This results in a ground-level problem…
How do you get slum children to attend school regularly and willingly?
Short answer: You give them toys to play with and make the activity slightly challenging and competitive.
Our Pixellated Murals project provides a simple and elegant solution to this problem. We have designed a fun, group-based activity using the familiar 3×3 Rubik’s Cube, the largest selling toy in the world. The task is moderately challenging, slightly competitive, and built around peer learning. Children are naturally drawn to the group, and once one starts solving, others follow. This shared curiosity pulls them into a safe, structured learning space — joyfully.
Pixellated Murals entices children through peer-fission – they see their peers (friends) having fun with toys and want to join in. The 3×3 puzzle cube is an apt choice to get the children to come to school willingly because it requires very little explanation. Holding a jumbled cube, one can quickly grasp what needs to be done to ‘solve’ the puzzle. The cube also fosters healthy competition through speed solving and dextrous tricks! It’s no surprise that the original Rubik’s cube is one of the largest selling toys in the world!
Pixellated Murals is a group activity. Though each cube is worked upon by a single participant, its takes a group to get it all together. This fun, collaborative and engaging process with the theme based mosaic graphic boosts memory, improves spacial reasoning, builds a logical mind and fosters an analytical thought process. Additionally, children imbibe extremely important social skills such as teamwork, communication and leadership.
Education Beyond the Blackboard
The project was started in April of 2023 and is still being implemented at the Innovation For Change’s Innovative Pathshala — a learning space for children at the Bhawaniganj slum in Lucknow city, Uttar Pradesh. More than 250 children have been actively involved in Pixellated Murals project and more than 400 mosaics have been made.
Update: March 2026: Seeing the small victories of the Pixellated Murals project – increased focus, gain in confidence and communication skills in these slum children – Innovation For Change NGO have decided to include it as a daily activity at their newly opened education centers.
Would you like to try our Pixellated Murals project at your center? Let us know.
We have step-by-step tutorials with detailed videos on how you can replicate the success of the project at your center. Our Sherpa Pixel will guide you through the undulating path to help achieve victory!
With most guardians working as daily wage laborers, children are often left unsupervised in unsafe, distracting environments.
The core challenge:
Our Solution
At the heart of the Pixelated Murals project is Abhishek Kashyap, the team leader. Working with curious young minds is no easy task—but the way Abhishek leads with patience, clarity, and quiet strength is truly commendable. He teaches them how to solve the cube, shares the story behind each mural, and most importantly, keeps their curiosity alive.
