Arun Elassery
The mainstream educational discourse stridently insists that science and mathematics are the most important and also the most difficult subjects that children need to learn. Here are some contrary expert opinions.
Sanjana Krishnan
On the 17th of January, students of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, set up an exhibition called Paradigm. It was a wonderful exercise in learning by doing. The students were encouraged to take up topics from the syllabus that interested them and design innovative experiments to illustrate some concepts embedded in these topics.
Tejasvi Dantuluri
There is a growing apathy in students towards science. One reason (or misconception) is that it is a tough classroom subject and another is that it is the clever student’s cup of tea. This notion has led to both fear and stress in pupils as they keep encountering the subject at different levels of their education.
Kripa Gowrishankar and Richard Fernandes
Galileo is credited with discovering the laws of the simple pendulum. It is a much told story that he observed the swinging of the lantern in the cathedral of Pisa (whose bell tower is the famous Leaning Tower) during a church service. He is said to have timed it against his pulse, which one presumes he had suspected to be of uniform temporal nature.
SDM Book Review Discovered Questions Yash Pal and Rahul Pal Published by NCERT Price Rs. 130/- Prof. Yash Pal, charismatic scientist and science popularizer, the man behind Countrywide Classroom and Turning Point, writes by way of introduction to the book, “Over the years I have been asked several questions that have been ‘discovered’ by children, young and not so young. These questions are seldom of a kind to which straight answers can be found in the normal textbooks. Often they are non-school questions and are not addressed by teachers driven by the need to ‘cover the course’. Many of these discovered questions require more than one academic discipline to understand.” The book Discovered Questions is a compilation of such questions and their answers. Prof. Yash Pal says, “Do not take the answers as truth. I am not here to dispense truth. Let us start a process of exploration and joint understanding.” The questions range from ‘Does sunscreen really protect the skin?’ to ‘What is Lorentzian and Euclidian space time?’ to ‘Do ghosts exist?’ to ‘How does the sun appear to a bee with compound eyes sensitive to ultra violet light?”. The answers are given in a chatty informal style, avoiding scientific jargons. The style is more like sharing an opinion and not like talking down upon. For example, the question ‘What does it take to be a Nobel Prize winner?” is answered thus: Nobel Prize winners are not demi gods……. They are often prisoners of great passion. Though some lobbying might help, it is often superfluous or counter-productive. Your work must be exposed to the scrutiny of your peers. You cannot get a Nobel Prize for doing something great and not telling anyone about it. Every page of this 150 page book is a sheer joy to read. The questions and answers are accompanied by delightful illustrations. It is a must have book for every school library. Also, teachers should follow Prof. Yash Pal’s example and compile their own ‘discovered questions’. Website Review Vigyan Prasar Science Portal Science students and teachers cannot afford to miss out on this portal. Vigyan Prasar (VP) is an autonomous organization under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Objectives of VP are to take up large-scale science popularization tasks/activities, to promote and propagate scientific and rational outlook, to act as a resource-cum-facility centre for S&T communication. The Vigyan Prasar Science Portal has information about the science video serials aired on Rajya Sabha TV, information on ongoing radio
Subha Das Mollick
Albert Einstein had once said, “Common sense is that layer of prejudices laid down in the mind prior to the age of eighteen.” Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is commonsense defying, but it is intriguing enough for multiple viewing and a closer examination on the basis of known and accepted facts about the Universe.
Subha Das Mollick
Albert Einstein had once said, “Common sense is that layer of prejudices laid down in the mind prior to the age of eighteen.” Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is commonsense defying, but it is intriguing enough for multiple viewing and a closer examination on the basis of known and accepted facts about the Universe.
Ananda Shankar Jayant
‘Remember your basic physics class, and now find your centre of gravity’, I tell my young dance students. ‘Strengthen your spine and find the inherent balance of your body. To leap and jump in the air and perform aerial movements, remember to accept gravity and then take off from it, by lightening your body.
PK Thiruvikraman
Teachers usually despair that their students are more interested in watching a movie than sitting in a classroom; they find a novel more exciting than a textbook. As teachers, we feel that we are fighting a losing battle to grab the attention of the student in the face of competition from various sources of entertainment which have mushroomed in this digital age.
Sayantan Mukherjee
The Theory of Everything is the exceptional story of the renowned astrophysicist and a living legend, Stephen Hawking who falls in love with fellow Cambridge student, Jane Wilde. The film is based on the non-fiction book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen written by Jane Wilde.
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