BUILDING CURIOSITY FOR LEARNING

Introduction

Children, by nature, are curious and creative. It is up to us how we tap into their talents and help them see things while having a scientific temperament. Posing interesting problems to students will kindle their thought process and enable them to come up with innovative answers. Children are often aware of the issues pertaining to the environment around them. The role of a science teacher would be to make the students understand that scientific thinking can help bring about a remediation for the different issues. As a Science teacher, I believe that research or investigatory projects can help in nurturing the inherent curiosity among children. Such projects also help young minds to imbibe the scientific temperament. Hence, we conducted two projects in the previous academic year 2017 – 2018.

The emergence of ideas

I presently work in the Government Boys High School, Mettupalayam, and I am responsible for teaching the students of the upper primary classes. The students of my school are quite observant, and, hence, they are able to come up with one or two issues to work on. Those issues usually end up being our projects for the year.

Real-life problem 1: Sometime in August, the Mathematics teacher of the school took a long leave for 20 days because of an allergy that was caused due to chalk dust. The students have often seen many teachers, including me, sneeze while rubbing the board or while standing near it. It was a student of Class VI, who is irregular to school, faces difficulty with reading and writing who actually noticed this issue of chalk dust. He asked me, “Is there any way to replace this dusty chalk?” Another student of the same class came up with the idea of using eggshells as the raw material instead of chalk.

Real-life problem 2: The students of Class VII were quite agitated by the fruit flies that sat on the watermelons and jackfruits, which were sold outside the school premises. They also observed that these flies feed on banana and chikoo as well; fruits that, unfortunately, cannot be refrigerated. A boy recollected that his grandmother used to pour tea waste on plants, saying that that would get rid of the insects. The students wanted to test this out for themselves, and they were quite enthusiastic about finding various sources of caffeine. This is how our other project—Is caffeine an effective repellent of Drosophila?—came into the picture.

What did we do?

One of the highlights of these projects was that rich student-discussions were facilitated. Students questioned each other. They discussed problems with me, suggested alternatives, and worked as a team to bring out the results.

Case 1: Eco chalk

As one of our students had suggested, eggshells were chosen as raw material for making chalk. Leftover waste eggshells were collected from the mid-day meal (MDM) area, and these were dried in the terrace of the school. I suggested the students to add vinegar to the eggshells in order to facilitate easy grinding of the same. However, when the students ground the shells, it became a batter-like substance because of the effect of vinegar. So, the entire process was tried once again. This time, in addition to the eggshells collected from the MDM area, another student brought eggshells from his father’s shop.

After drying those eggshells, the students ground it using stones to turn them into a fine powder. This process was followed by sieving, whereby the students were able to collect the very fine eggshell powder. They were aware that maida acts as a binding agent, as it is used to make fried snacks at their homes. They thought that maida could be utilized here to provide the necessary stability to the “chalk” piece. They mixed the eggshell powder with maida and molded the mixture into the shape of a chalk piece using their hands. Upon drying this mixture under the sun, they were finally able to produce an eco-friendly chalk piece. However, the happiness lasted only for few minutes, since the new chalk broke down into pieces once they started writing with it. The students realized that some ingredients must have been missing that would make it firm enough. They wondered what that could be.

However, the students were not demotivated at their premature failure. One boy discussed the problem with his father. The father took him to the nearby chalk manufacturing industry. That student was the one to suggest that the missing ingredient could be limestone, since he had acquired the information from his recent visit that the rigidity of chalks is achieved through the use of limestone.

So, the students repeated the process once again. They collected eggshells, dried them, powdered and sieved them, added maida to the sieved fine powder, and finally added ground limestone powder to the mixture. They molded it into the shape of a chalk piece and dried the mixture once again. As per their expectations, they finally managed to create an eco-friendly chalk.

Case 2: Is caffeine an effective repellent of Drosophila?

The question that rose in this project was whether there was any natural way to prevent fruit flies from breeding on fruits. We proceeded to experiment with the idea of using caffeine as the natural repellent. The first problem that the students faced was how they could bring fruit flies to their science table. They easily solved this problem by, first, taking three plastic containers and putting some vegetable waste inside them. Once they observed some fruit flies being attracted to them, they closed the container. However, all the fruit flies died before the caffeine extract could be added. A student justified the outcome by saying that the flies died of suffocation since the container was closed.

Then, it was decided that the project would be done in 15 transparent boxes having minute holes that would not suffocate the fruit flies. Reddish papaya and bananas were put in the boxes and kept near my house. The next day, we found that all the boxes were empty—there were neither any fruits nor were any flies to be found. One boy speculated that the fruits might have been eaten by the cattle.

The experiment was repeated with slices of watermelon being put in all the 15 boxes, and the boxes were placed inside the bushes. However, once again the fruits went missing. This time our red watermelons were eaten up by the monkey. Our patience was being tested.

The experimentations were conducted through trial and error. Every time, a new hurdle presented itself. However, without losing hope, the students came up with their own ideas to tackle the problem, and, finally, the boxes with papaya and banana fruits were kept near the gate of my house, so that neither the cow nor the monkey could eat them. This time, our project worked out—we were able to find many drosophila flies. We closed the boxes with the lid and started our project by simply observing the fruit flies. Then, we tested the flies with different concentrations of caffeine solution and recorded our observations. At last, we represented our result graphically. Further, we tested the caffeine as a repellent in our kitchen garden and got fruitful results.

Reflections

The students were able to devise a strategy by themselves. They connected their previous knowledge, executed plans, and retried the entire process tirelessly whenever they failed in achieving their goal. The students are, by nature, quite active and curious. Many of their questions have often amazed me. Most of our project ideas emerge because of their questions. I provide them with a conducive environment and encourage their questions and clarifications, instead of taking them for granted. Many of their questions can be connected to age-appropriate concepts, and, eventually, it becomes a learning for life.

Peer learning is quite evident throughout the activities that are conducted. Students with mixed learning abilities worked together and helped each other out to collect materials, come up with suggestions, reach out to appropriate sources for help, etc. Giving them the ownership of the task and appreciating that has made them unstoppable. The effort that I had to apply amounted to nothing more than regular guidance and acknowledgement.

Way forwarda

We will not take this scientific curiosity amongst students for granted. We will try to take up more and more such small-scale projects, which might be locally relevant in the future. 

Teacher: Anitha, GBHS Mettuppalyam