Santosh Sharma
Can science be taught using an inter-disciplinary approach such that it can help students reinforce their thinking and develop their problem-solving skills? Here is a classroom plan for a topic that shares an interface with other subjects such as physics and chemistry.
Category: Classroom Update
The biology of equilibrium – 1
Vijayalakshmi Nandakumar
Biology is full of awe-inspiring events. How living organisms adapt themselves to suit their living conditions is one such. Ever wondered how the extremely saline sea water sustains life? How creatures live underwater? What kind of adaptations are necessary for organisms that live on land? Learn about homeostasis and how it works in different animals to help them survive in their habitats.
Up and down the integer line
Krittika Hazra
We are all familiar with the statements, “minus, minus is plus” and “plus, minus is minus”. Teaching integers can be very frustrating. How do you explain the logic behind these statements? Are there better methods we can use to help our students understand integers? This teacher shares a possible alternative.
Those darn formulae!
Jayanthi Tiruvaeipati
Students generally find it difficult to write the chemical formula of a compound. How can a teacher clarify to the class when students raise doubts about why a formula should be written in a particular way? This article throws light on how chemical formulae can be written.
The five Es of EVS
Gowthama Rajavelu
A lesson on Environmental Studies can be made interesting if the teacher is able to explore the concepts and also take the students along. It is a perfect example of learning science with a social touch. This article explains how a teacher used various pedagogical processes to create a lively EVS classroom.
The experience of poetry
Urvashi Nangia
Poems are not meant to be taught but experienced. Dissecting a poem to arrive at its meaning only kills the beauty of the poem. Students have to be given the space and the freedom to interpret a poem for themselves.
How plants make their own food
Ambika Nag
Concepts in any subject are better understood and grasped by students if they are explained in the form of stories. In Science too, a topic such as photosynthesis will find many takers if teachers first take the trouble to learn for themselves about scientists and their discoveries and how understanding of a concept evolved in the past. This article takes a peep into the historical account of the discovery of photosynthesis and how definitions came to be.
“What good is trigonometry in my life?”
Jyoti Thyagarajan
Trigonometry need’nt be as scary as it sounds. If you know the right directions to point them to, children understand how trigonometry is useful in their lives.
The inner courtyard of cognition
Sudeep Ghosh
Critical thinking, we all know, is the ability to think clearly and rationally. But, does this sort of logical thinking hinder creativity and is being creative a part of critical thinking? Yes, we need to think critically to evaluate and improve on our ideas. In this issue of Classroom Update, the author says that critical thinking is a problem-solving tool and the key to unlocking ideas – fresh, invigorating, pristine. This article proposes an inter-disciplinary take on the nature and value of critical thinking.
Solute, solvent and solution – 2
Avneesh Shukla
What is a diluted solution? And what about a concentrated one? Is air a solution or a solvent? Students of a government school found answers to these questions with the help of a few experiments set up by the author.