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How I wonder what you are…

The children catch their breath when A. Subbiah Pandian lies on a bed of thousands of nails. But soon, he sits up unscathed and asks his young audience, “Tell me, why didn’t I get hurt?” They shout out a dozen reasons. Finally, the professor lets out the secret — he has distributed his weight equally across all the nails, so that each nail actually bears just a few grams of weight! A virtual bulb glows in the minds of these children as they comprehend the scientific principle behind this famous trick.

A sense of wonder is not just something that takes science forward. It is also what keeps the mind vibrantly alive and geared to take on life’s challenges. “The worst thing that man could do is to kill this sense of wonder,” Einstein had once remarked. Perhaps, our system of education crushes this sense of wonder. Most of our lessons begin with statements, not questions or exclamation marks. Perhaps this is what ails science in our country; and why many of our researchers do research that is not very original.

“Science is very difficult to comprehend through rote learning. Experiments make it easier and more vivid,” says Dr. Pandian, Professor of Physics, Presidency College, Chennai, who conducts fascinating experiments to demonstrate scientific concepts. “Invariably, I find that children enjoy the experiments and thrash out ideas. They wouldn’t have done so, if I had started off with a lecture,” he says.

Experiments kindle the joy of learning in children. Without them, learning becomes dry and unappealing. “Experience, observation, reflection, formation of abstract concepts and testing in new situations — these are the keys to meaningful learning and scientific progress,” agrees former IIT professor K. Kalyana Krishnan, who devised the famed IITM software. Apart from stimulating the imagination, these processes help children remember concepts, as learning is linked to real life experiences.

Arousing a sense of curiosity and wonder is not the sole prerogative of schools. It can be done at home too. For, home is actually a stage where science can be explored. Look at the gadgets we use everyday. It doesn’t mean that you smile and allow your son to pull apart the television to understand how it works. You can allow him to watch various gadgets being taken apart when they being repaired and serviced.

Building a house? Take him to the construction site, and he has his first lessons in civil engineering. Let him explore Nature — be it a patch of soil, or a pot on the balcony, and watch him realise how life unfolds. Follow this up by making him read up on how and why life begins. There are also the scores of do-it-yourself books that tell you how to conduct safe experiments with ordinary household articles. Well, actually, experiential learning is applicable not just to science, but to the entire learning experience. Rather than keeping them indoors, take your kids along on errands to the corporation office, the post office or the bank and you give them a dose of experiential learning. “Such learning happens after a child is directly involved in day-to-day activities. It has a greater impact than textbook-browsing,” says clinical psychologist, V. Sugantha.

Children will, no doubt, tire you with their endless ‘Why’s and ‘Why nots. But then, nothing in life comes free, certainly not your child’s future. Answer all questions honestly, even if the honest answer happens to be “I don’t know”.

Follow it up with a “Let’s find out”, and you set out on a voyage of learning with your child, and you will end up enlightening yourself. What can be a more satisfying journey?

IGNITING MINDS