U.P. Board: Learning intricacies of science with everyday items
Teachers will be trained based on this newly prepared module from the new academic session starting from April 1
More than 55 lakh students of Classes 9 and 10, studying in more than 27,000 schools affiliated to UP Board, will soon be taught and explained the intricacies of science with eco-friendly items like turmeric and hibiscus petals.
For the first time, experts of the State Institute Science Education (SISE)- Prayagraj, a unit of State Council of Educational Research and Training, Uttar Pradesh (SCERT UP), have prepared a training module for science and mathematics teachers, in which they will be taught to use eco-friendly items besides regular chemicals to teach students during practical lessons, officials of the state secondary education department said.
Teachers will be trained based on this newly prepared module from the new academic session starting from April 1, 2024, they added.
In the module, the cell’s structure has been explained by making temporary slides of petals of hibiscus and mustard flowers. In chemistry, acids and bases have been identified by experimenting with various items used in daily life like lemon, amla, jamun, orange, curd, seasonal fruits and turmeric solution etc using blue and red litmus paper, said director of SISE-Prayagraj, Anil Bhushan Chaturvedi.
Likewise in physics, the help of graph paper has been taken to explain the principle of motion, he added.
“The training module has been prepared for the first time on the instructions of the director-general of school education. With its help, teachers will be given training in the new session,” explained Chaturvedi.
The help of magic will be taken too, to explain science to children in a simple way. Any message like ‘Happy Birthday’ is written on white paper with baking soda solution (base). It is not visible on the paper but when it is rubbed with beetroot juice (indicator), the message becomes visible, explained Manjusha Gupta and Mamta Dubey, experts and science coordinators at the SISE-Prayagraj, citing an example from the module suggested for teaching identification of acids and bases in a fun way.
Similarly, the process of identifying metals like zinc, magnesium, aluminum, iron and copper etc will be done with hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, they added.
SISE-Prayagraj’s mathematics coordinator Arvind Kumar Gautam said that the new training module spells out the way to teach concepts of cube-cuboid shapes etc with the help of cardboard boxes.
