Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Low-cost science kit developed

By Ajit Patowary

GUWAHATI, Dec 11 � Nripen Saikia, a science teacher in the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) of Lakhimpur has developed a low-cost and ground-breaking kit for conducting science experiments by school students with a view to motivating them towards taking up basic science in the coming days.

A recent survey has revealed that the number of students pursuing basic science these days has alarmingly gone down below 20 per cent. Saikia had initially developed the kit in 2008 after 10 arduous years since 1998. Now he has improved it for the 219 Aryabhatta Science Centres run by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC). Saikia said that the kit has been developed to its present shape after field trials in Manipur and West Bengal.

The kit can be use to conduct 30 experiments in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The Aryabhatta Science Centres are school-based science activity centres, which also take care of the common people�s scientific inquisitions in matters of science and its application.

Experiments like finding out the centre of gravity, velocity of moving bodies like wheels, determining the focal length of a lense, running an electric motor with the help of an electric wire coil, etc., can be done with the kit.

It can also be used to experiment on the Bernoulli�s Principle, Principle of Archimedes, preparation of gases, determination of boiling points of liquid materials and studying the functioning of the lung of living beings, among others.

The kit is expected to provide scopes to cultivate a pro-science culture among the school children. The kit is developed at a cost of around Rs 2,500.

The Aryabhatta Science Centres were set up in 2008 with the aim of building scientific temperament among the school students and in the State�s society as a whole. They are designed also to make science education exciting through experimentation and other hands-on activities, to promote basic sciences as a career for school children.

Dr RK Barman, Head of the ASTEC Science and Technology Division and a former Scientist of the National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata, said the kit is very innovative and it includes very exciting and easy-to-test-with-fun experiments. These are penetrating for the young minds.

Saikia has done a wonderful job for the State by involving his scientific, technical and entrepreneurial skills. It is definitely an exportable scientific kit, said Dr Barman.

Next Story