Small steps towards science in Haryana

Small steps towards Science in Haryana

In April’99, DPEP Haryana organized a state level ‘Materials Mela’ with support from the Pedagogy Unit, TSG-EdCil and the DPEP bureau. There were extensive preparations in the run up to the mela. ‘Nanhe Kadam Vigyan Ki Or’ (literally translated as ‘Small Steps towards Science’), a handbook of Science teaching for teachers, had its roots in this experience. Tushar Tamhane and Sheshagiri provided resource inputs into the making of this book. What follows is a brief report of the process that led to this interesting book.

In the beginning, we asked some basic questions – what are the various ways by which Science can be made enjoyable and meaningful for teachers and children in the primary years? Where should we begin? How should the handbook be written? Quickly, we realized that if new ideas in Science teaching had to be introduced, they would have to be related to that ‘Bible’, the textbook. Whether one likes it or not, most primary school teachers in our country still swear by the textbook. Any idea that cannot be linked with what the textbook is saying is considered ‘extra’; the usual refrain is that “We have to ‘cover’ the syllabus!” Therefore, the more specific the linkage with the text, the greater the degree of acceptance by the teachers, a maxim we realized in the early days itself. Not a very pleasant way to begin, but there was no choice! Ideally, however, we would have liked to rethink the Science curriculum, but there was no space and time for this to happen.

So, with a ‘core’ group of teachers, resource persons from BRCs, CRCs DPO and DIETs, we began! Like hawks, we studied the existing science textbooks of each of the primary grades, looking for statements that provided even vague possibilities for experiments and demonstration. You see, we had to ‘equip’ ourselves with these ideas to provoke the teachers into thinking that they could do these things in the classroom. Our textbook search rewarded us with cryptic statements like ‘Hot air will rise’, or ‘Air exerts pressure’, or the ubiquitous ‘Air occupies space’. We grabbed these possibilities and brainstormed the possible range of experiments that could be set up to explore these ‘facts’. To help ourselves in this task, we had collected a wide range of science activity books from here and there – why reinvent the wheel when so many ideas exist? They had only to be adapted to our needs.

As we moved along, we collected many interesting ideas for experimentation. Small task groups were set up on ‘Air, water, forces’ and so on. We resolved that we would follow the philosophy of ‘local context, local materials’ in our work. Arvind Gupta’s presentation on one of those days on using bottle caps, water bottles, ice cream sticks, used plastic bags, etc., spurred the group onto greater efforts. For the group, the dream of writing a book for thousands of teachers across the state was itself awe inspiring, and it kept them going. Another slogan that we established in the early days in the name of enquiry and exploration, was, ‘Karo! Vichaar Karo! Dubara Karo!’ (Try! Think! Try again!)

As the mela approached nearer, we shifted base from TSG to SCERT Gurgaon, Haryana. The conference room was soon littered with materials which otherwise would have been termed as ‘junk’. Slowly, this junk was being converted into exciting experiments. Water bottles with balloons showed that air indeed occupies space. Plastic milk bags showed that pressurized air could even lift a person. Dry pieces of cloth could act as siphons, camera film containers acted as pumps, balloons could be stuck to the walls, marbles were used like bearings, matchboxes jumped up like frogs…each of these activities had a wealth of fascinating science to be explored and understood. We managed to link all of these to those cryptic textbook statements!

Two incidents can never be erased from my mind – the first had to do with a curious professor of mathematics education at the SCERT who had walked in to see what we were up to. He was given a mineral water bottle, with a balloon fixed across its opening, hanging inside the bottle. When asked to blow the balloon inside the bottle, he found to his consternation that it wouldn’t expand. He went away, muttering that there was some ‘problem’ with the bottle or the balloon! He came back later to realize with a shock that the balloon could not be blown inside the bottle because there was something inside the bottle that occupied space – air! Despite their best efforts, some members of the group who were trying to ‘prove that 20% of the atmospheric air is made up of oxygen’, failed. In the classic experiment of the burning candle in the water container with an upturned glass tumbler, the water always rose to occupy much more than a fifth of the glass tumbler much to everybody’s frustration, thereby violating the ‘facts’ as presented in most textbooks! So, there was a great deal of discovery, learning, and more importantly, unlearning for many of us.

The process of writing the handbook was equally interesting and challenging. There was a debate on including the ‘explanation’ for each experiment. Some favored the easy way, suggesting that we write the explanation at the end of each experiment. How would the teachers know otherwise? Others, who were a bit more adventurous, felt that the teachers and children should themselves discover the meaning behind each experiment. We would only write about the materials required and indicate the basic instructions to be followed. Eventually, the latter view prevailed. So we left an empty box on each page for the teacher to fill. Similarly, another box was left empty for the teachers and children to write about phenomena that they saw or experienced in their environment that illustrated an interesting principle. It would not be an exaggeration to state that this is perhaps the only Govt. primary school handbook with spaces for the teachers to fill! We chose catchy names for each experiment like “Are, Ye Pani kahan se!” (Hey! Where has this water come from?”) We even gave a list of references at the end of the book. There was another list of locally available materials that could be used for the experiments. All in all, we gave our imagination the best shot in the making of this book. Last, but not the least, the naming of the book – Tushar suggested Nanhe kadam Vigyan Ke (Small steps of Science), but the group felt that Nanhe Kadam Vigyan Ki Or (Small steps towards science) was better. So we left it there, enriched by all the small steps that we had taken towards that effort.

The mela itself was lively; there were hundreds of participants from all over the state. The science group did a commendable job.

As I write this, I wonder – how far has this book reached? Has it made the life of the child and her teacher in DPEP Haryana more exciting and filled with a joy of discovery? It is one thing to write an interesting book, but quite another to make that book work in the harsh and complex reality of our schooling system. We can only hope that it has made some difference. We do realize however that many more Nanhe Kadams will have to be taken…

Giri
July 2001