Two weeks ago, my 9th-grade student and I were discussing the synthesis of alcohol by the process of fermentation. After going through the synthesis reactions in detail, our discussion moved to other instances of fermentation in our everyday experience. She immediately recognised Idli and Dosa batter formation and we wound…
View More Why don’t we get high on Idli and Dosa?
Parenting requires tremendous commitment on our parts and our children are certainly worth it. Even with an understanding of the five messages of positive parenting, being a good parent is not easy. It doesn’t work when we treat children as if they are innocent and good one day and then…
View More Happy Parenting
Let me narrate two stories from the recent experience of science and maths in action. Story 1: In the last couple of months, on four different occasions, I observed something curious in restaurants. I found rice grains in the salt shakers. I hadn’t come across this earlier. Is it a…
View More Of rice in salt and Pythagoras in a paddy field
In recent times, we often find students leading stressful lives. I think that one of the most stressful times in a person’s life is when they are in school. Nowadays students get stressed due to many reasons. A small amount of work is fine for them, but high expectations lead…
View More YOGA – A Science of Body, mind and soul
As kids we have always had our very own mathematical tricks, these tricks were tucked away in our rough notes and last pages of our textbooks.To name a few – Magic square, tables of number 9 and the list just goes on. As an example, let me show you a…
View More Fish can’t fly and birds can’t swim
“At 15 months old, my daughter has 6 teeth, your daughter? 4? Oh!” “Both our children are 1.5 years old, your daughter already recognises animals from pictures, my daughter can’t do that at all” ”My son got 73% in his previous year final exams, so this year I am sending…
View More There’s more to life than few meagre numbers
Schools – the seats of knowledge and the sites of moulding future generations, need to address constantly, this question of what and how of teaching. Regarding the question of ‘what to teach’, there is a growing concern on the quantum of content that students are expected to consume in the…
View More The WHAT and HOW of Teaching