The Science Express

The Rewachand Bhojwani Academy (RBA), science experiments are met with cheers of joy rather than bored consent. The reason being their new learning technique, quite popular in the west, called Practical Science. Here, every week after their classes, the students indulge in activities that help them understand the various concepts in science.

Karishma Lamba, an educationalist with the RBA, says, "The realisation that scientific principles and wonders are at work all around us all the time, and always shall be. It awes and inspires not only the students but also the teachers, encouraging them to explore, think and question."

This new approach has not merely helped young learners to become more open to the scientific experience but has also provided them with a strong foundation through supplemented science curriculum with hands on activities and experimentation.

"Practical Science has become a reality at the RBA, where teaching is being enriched by hands-on learning experiences. Text book scientific principles come alive as students observe and experiment and the world around is explored through the science in day-to-day activities," says Lamba.

Since the inception of this project, students have enthusiastically developed their ideas and put them to test. They have, through this process, accumulated a set of science activities and ideas that have been documented and recorded in a unique manner. Supplementing writing with pictures, photographs and video recording, each student has contributed to the creation of a science blog article that aims to be for the students, by the students. Their blog titled Science Unveiled @ The Rewachand Bhojwani Academy, Pune (Rbascienceunveiled.blogspot.in) lists their various activities and experiments.

Various experiments and studies are listed in neat blog posts, titled, Law of conservation of energy, Biodiversity explorations and Study of sound, among others.

For the children of Class 5-7, the initiative has been started since November 24 this year, and has already received hundreds of hits on their blog. From the next school year, Lamba plans to take the children on tours of other schools with their projects in the form of a "mobile science exhibition" where the students can explain their experiments and findings to other children.

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