Science made interesting

AT THE Birla Planetarium, children were recently seen milling around as they are wont to do - the serene building stood a witness to the awakening awareness of children to the wonderful world of science - their curiosity about everything was fresh - the pictures of planets were looked at with wonder and awe - everything presented as exciting and as attractive as its contents.

The British Council, Chennai, and the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre, Chennai, brought to Chennai a show where it was explained how science can be taught and propagated interestingly - the target audience being science teachers in Chennai.

The science educators interacted with Marianne Cutler, Director, Science Across The World, and United Kingdom, the international education flagship programme for the Association for Science Education. Marianne was a Regional Co-coordinator for the Pupil Researcher Initiative with the EPSRC and PPARC, ) U.K. Government research agencies and previously has taught science for eight years. Talking to her, one got the feeling that the quiet unassuming person is worth much more than what she portrayed herself to be. What exactly is Science Across The World? She is lucid about a subject that brings together teachers and students in a bind that makes science accessible and interesting for all. It is an international education flagship programme for its founding partners, BP and the Association for Science Education. It provides a forum for students between 12 to 17 years to exchange facts and opinions with young people in other countries - through a unique series of compact resource topics on environmental and social science issues, in upto 18 languages.

The programme, according to her, has linked hundreds of school across the world. This in turn helps the schools exchange facts and other information on various aspects of the topics chosen. She adds that schools all over are encouraged to register with them - through the various methods now available including web pages, and choose a topic. The list is provided by them too and they also provide the data support. The students have to collect information, data and other related things that would go towards the discussions and the learning experience - all this is put together to be shared with schools across the world.

What the programme involves is that a topic of individual choice is taken up - this is then put forward to all schools attached to it and all the workings on the topic. Each topic includes an introduction to the issue, teachers' notes, student work pages, an exchange form and up-to-date support data. The work involves collecting information, data and opinions locally and nationally. These are then combined toghter and exchanged with schools in other countries.

A topic usually takes between three to six hours to complete and this may include a homework assignment. Another session is required later on to discuss the information received from other schools. The materials are so designed that teachers need only work in their own language, but many language teachers find this programme an excellent tool for giving language learning a context that is relevant and interesting to young people. The topics have been carefully selected to link - but not interfere - with existing curricula. A team of educators has written each topic from different countries in consultation with experts on the issues concerned. The level of knowledge and skills required make the topics generally suitable for secondary (high) school students although certain topics have been specially designed for younger students. According to Ms. Cutler, some of the topics chosen are - acid rain, using energy at home, what did you eat, biodiversity around us, keeping healthy, renewable energy, chemistry in our lives, domestic waste, drinking water, road safety, solar energy, global warming.

Some of the teachers across the world who have used this programme say the students learn a lot. For example in Turkey, the students worked with the geography teacher and she helped them learn about the kinds of power stations in Turkey and in Europe. Besides, they also learnt to communicate in English.

What then could children do practically on their own to see that environmental awareness is a part of daily living? Marianne says children could in their immediate surroundings, take care of, for instance, recycling of domestic waste, the diet and its cleanliness and see if they can have a say in the locally produced food, and also act as opinion leaders within the home and community. They could also investigate, as a project, local problems faced by farmers, how water is supplied and try and ensure some kind of standardisation in everyday life that is closely linked to the environment.

How did she find the response from the teachers here and in all her endeavours previously? The group of 32 teachers who participated in Chennai from 16 higher secondary schools was, she says, extremely enthusiastic - many exercises were done and a lot learnt through the process of intense interaction. She says they forgot all the pressures of their regular curriculum and routine and set themselves out to make science teaching as interesting as possible.

Marianne has many plans which she feels will go a long way in linking schools in learning science and environment. She says she would like to work with the British Council and a few core teachers who would create a network as disseminators/ teachers so that the movement can truly global. So far, she says she has worked in the urban set-up with all its unique environmental problems - she would like to eventually also access the rural areas to see how the programme works at the grassroot level.

CHITRA MAHESH

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