Science Education

There has been lots of hand-wringing over science education in the country. On the recent site visits, I visited one school where there are now children studying in class 7th and 8th. Aha! I can talk to them about science and feel little bit more comfortable.

"Have you done any science."
Giggles.
"Yes? No?"
Few heads nod.
"Oh good. What have you learnt?"
Silence.
I racked my brains. I know as early as 7th we start on photosynthesis.
"Photosynthesis?"
Nodding of heads.
"What happens?"
"Sun, carbon..."
"And."
"It makes food."
Fair enough.
"Good. You all grow plants."
Most of the kids I assumed belonged to farming community.
Tentative nod. One girl said:
"We don't."
"Okay. But you must know that add fertilizer."
"Yes. Of course we add fertilizer."
"Why do you add fertilizer?"
Silence.
"What is in fertilizer?"
Silence.
Then I took them out into the small patch of green. I showed them two plants. They identified one as chrysanthemum.
"Okay. Let us look at the leaves. Tell me is there any difference between the blade of the grass and the leaves of chrysanthemum."
The kids looked. One girl said:
"It is different shade of green."
"Anything else?"
Finally one girl burst out:
"The shape of the leaves are different."
Absolutely. That is why just by looking at plants- say a rice plant and wheat plant- we can immediately say which one is which.
But the encounter left me thinking. There they were surrounded by the fields. What a lovely place to teach biology! There is no need for the textbook. Whatever is written down there can actually be demonstrated out in the field. If only the teacher was so inclined.

That is our problem. Our teachers themselves are not motivated or have enough imagination to make learning fun. Of course learning was never fun for them so...

That is when I got my whacky idea. Over the years I have always had whacky ideas. Sort of what to do if my Phd fails, or if my post-doc fails, or now if the academic career (with the best intentions of certain people) fails...

It would be wonderful to take time off and spend with kids in the rural areas. Teach them the rudiments of science, the art of thinking...all I would need is to devise simple experiments to do...did you know that we can actually isolate DNA using only onion peels and little bit of inexpensive chemicals? So there it is.

The only problem is that I would have to learn the scientific terms in Hindi. But then that too should be fun. Something new to learn.