CREATIVITY AND CLASS ROOM ACTIVITIES
We do a number of activities in the class room, while teaching science. But before that we should plan in order to incorporate the answers of the following relevant questions :
1. What to teach?
2. Why to teach what we teach?
3. How to teach?
4. Why to teach the way we teach?
5. How to find out that students have learned what we taught them?
The whole planning is under ONE WHAT, TWO WHYS and TWO HOWS.
WHAT we teach and HOW we teach should be compatible with the cognitive level of students, identified objectives and existing classroom conditions.
According to NPE. 1986, science education will be strengthened so as to develop in the child well defined abilities and values such as the spirit of inquiry, CREATIVITY, the courage to question, and an aesthetic sensibility. Sciences education programme will be designed to enable the learner to acquire problem solving and decision making skills.
Science is not just CONTENT. Science is CONTENT + SOMETHING. And that SOMETHING is what we refer as PROCESSES. Teach students PROCESSES, they will learn most of the science themselves.
The current innovations in schools emphasize the processes of science, the Ways in which scientists advance their knowledge and solve problems. If we want to make our students CREATIVE, science should be presented to them as a way in which they ran conduct an INQUIRY. In the past, the PROCESSES have been neglected and the school science has been concerned almost exclusively with the CONTENT. When content worship in becoming old fashioned in developed countries, our country is still after it. Inspite of sufficiently available equipment in our schools, few show experiments and demonstrations. Content is covered by asking students to read books or giving lectures without experiments and demonstrations, in order to cover more contents in less time.
We should, encourage our students to become personally involved in solving problems, in discovering some science for themselves. HOW? Teach them content with demonstrations and experiments. Give them enough practice in science prosesses-observing, classifying, using numbers, measuring, using space - time relationships, communicating, predicting, inferring, defining operationally, formulating hypotheses, interpreting data, controlling variables and experimenting.
"To learn science is to do science, there is no other way of learning science". (Prof. D.S. Kothari). This is HOW we should teach science.
I heard and I forgot (Lecture method),
I saw and I remembered (Demonstration method).
I did and I understood (Doing method).
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HOW should we teach science in order to develop CREATIVITY in students? The possible modes are :
1. Learner Centred Approach (LCA).
2. Teachers Centred Approach (TCA).
3. Scientific Method - Problem, Hypothesis Experiment , Conclusion.
4 EVS Approach.
5. Teacher - Learner Interaction.
6. Learner - Learner Interaction,
7. Learner - material Interaction.
8. Self - Learning Method
- Programmed Learning Technique.
- Multimedia package-
9. CONCRETE to ABSTRACT Approach
- Direct purposeful experiences, Contrived experiences, Dramatic participation, Demonstrations, Field trips or Excursions, Exhibits, Motion pictures and Television, Radio recordings and still pictures, Visual symbols and Verbal symbols.
WHAT METHODS will you apply in Experiments and Demonstrations given in the suggested list below in order to develop CREATIVITY in your students?
Will you Believe in the following statements? 1. "Believe nothing because you have been told about it. Don't believe What your teachers tells you merely out of respect for the teacher"-Gautam Buddha.
2. "Scientific Temper is the search for truth and new knowledge, the refusal to accept anything without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of new evidence."
Scientific Temper is a way of life, a process of thinking, a method of reacting and associating with our fellow men.
"Scientific Temper points out the way along which man should travel. We live in a scientific age, so we are told, but there is little evidence, of this temper in the people".-Pt. Nehru.
3. Scientists discover what God has created.
SUGGESTED LIST OF EXPERIMENTS/DEMONSTRATIONS : CLASS IX 1. Make a voltaic cell and measure its voltage.
2. Take a copper voltameter and find out the relationship between current, time and amount of copper deposited during electrolysis.
3. Find out the relationship between potential difference, Current and resistance of a conductor.
4. Find out the relationship between heat, electric current, resistance and time.
With the help of some experiments distinguish between a physical change and chemical change.
6. Observe experimentally exothermic and endothermic reactions.
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7. Dismantle a used dry cell and find out its parts-positive, negative, electrolyte and depolariser. Show with the help of a chemical reaction, how chemical energy is converted into electrical energy.
8. Take a biological microscope.
(a) What kind of lens combination does the objective have-concave or convex. Measure its rough focal length `F e'.
(b) What kind of lens combination does the eyepiece have concave or convex. Measure its rough focal length `F o'.
(c) Which is greater `F o' or `F e' or are they equal?
(d) Measure approximate distance between objective and eyepiece.
(e) Write the formula for its magnification `m' with the data obtained in (a), (b) and (d). The value of `m' is also written on the microscope. How much does it differ from the calculated value of
9. Show experimentally that chlorophyll, light, water and carbondioxide are needed for photosynthesis (write down the equation).
10. Does a plant leaf have starch? Test it.
11. Plot distance (s) - time (t) graph from the following observations, and find out speed (v) from it :
S (m) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
t (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
What will be the value of 'a' during these observations (s = ut + 1/2 at 2) ?
12. Plot velocity (v) - time (t) graph from the following observations and find out acceleration (d) from it.
v (m/s) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
t (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Calculate distance (s) in 10 seconds. What will be the velocity (v) when the experiment was just started i.e. at t = 0, what would be the initial velocity `u' (v=u+at)?
13. How much is one newton ?
14. How much is one joule ?
15. What are laws of reflection?
16. What are laws of refraction?
17. Show that CO 2 and heat are produced during respiration.
18. Measure the body temperature, pulse rate and heart beat. Is there any relation between them?
19. With the help of a slinky demonstrate transverse waves, longitudinal waves, crests, troughs, wave length.
20. Make a model to demonstrate myopia and hypermetropia and correction of these defects of eye.
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21. With the help of a working model of d.c. electric motor, demonstrate its construction and working.
22. With the help of a working model of d.c. electric generator, demonstrate its construction and working.
23. With the help of a domestic electric circuit (electric metre, main switch, fuse, switch, bulb holder, switch, plug -on a wooden board), demonstrate house wiring, KWH, reading of electric bill.
SUGGESTED LIST OF EXPERIMENTS / DEMONSTRATIONS : CLASS X 24. Make a model of a solar cooker. Take a beaker half full of water. Note down its temperature. Put the beaker before a solar cooker placed at a right spot. Note down the temperatures after 1/2 hour, 1 hour, 11 hour, 2 hour. What happens? Why it happens so?
25. In a given food stuff, test the presence of sugar, starch protein and fat.
26. With the help of a microscope identify at least two micro organisms present in a sample of pond water.
27. Take a fresh plant. Weigh it. Dry it and weigh again. What happens? Calculate the percentage of water content in the plant.
28. Prepare a saturated solution of sugar in 200 ml of water. Calculate the solubility of sugar in 200 ml of water. Calculate the solubility of sugar in grams per liter.
29. Take two samples of waters-soft water and hard water. Test the samples with soap solution and find out which of the two samples is hard water. Soften the hard water and test it.
30. With a working model of an external combustion enquire, demonstrate its construction and working.
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