Excursion to the National Science Centre, class 6.

Science has always been a subject taught with much enthusiasm but often a bookish approach makes it drab and for the impressionable minds of children.

With the objective of creating more awareness and generating greater interest in the subject, our School organised an excursion to the National Science Centre near Pragati Maidan on 23 December, 2013, for the students of class VI. We did not anticipate the amazement that waited us! The entry plaza to the Centre welcomed us with a huge exhibit hanging down four floors. We were informed that it is one of the largest exhibits in the world named The Energy Balls. Nylon balls are lifted to a height of fifty feet, letting them acquire potential energy, and then dropped, to freely travel all possible paths, basically to undertake work to expend their potential energy into other forms of energy. We proceeded into the gallery where other attention-grabbing exhibits were lined up. The Magic Tap which gushed water suspended in space without an inlet! A harp, where merely moving our hands before created music, and a suitcase which curiously resisted being twisted about it's handle! Already quite a plethora of exhibits that covered various aspects of science. The students moved along , carefully observing the displays and assimilating their information as possible. As we moved further on, the Centre revealed other treasures contained in six halls full of interesting and hands-on exhibits. An escalator took us to the first gallery on the third floor Our Science and Technology Heritage. The exhibition here depicted how, in the course of time, along with art and literature, there grew on Indian soil, a very rich scientific and technological culture. It portrayed how the concept of zero gained meaning in our country and similarly present-day numerals, the powers of ten, the golden rule of three, the square root and the cube root which were worked out 1500 years ago in our country! The children were overwhelmed to see life-sized mannequins which looked very real! Next we moved to the gallery on Human Biology. This portrayed the human body in all it's aspects: anatomical, physiological, biochemical, structural and functional. From this gallery, we descended to an exciting gallery on prehistoric life, featuring several life- sized, animated robotic models of dinosaurs and other long-extinct creatures in their natural habitats. The excitement of the students knew no bounds. The next Gallery was Fun Science. It was edutainment in the real sense, housing several hands-on exhibits explaining the fundamentals of science. The students were seen participating actively in the numerous activities put on display, one of which was to measure sound waves. The gallery on the first floor portrayed the march of the Information Revolution - from cave paintings to the Internet. The story of the evolution of Communication Technology over the past 6000 years in India was seen here in a large exposition and thoroughly enjoyed by the children. On the ground floor was the latest addition to the galaxy of galleries, Emerging Technologies - A look into the future which introduced us to a range of sunrise- technologies which promise to change human existence in the coming decade. The excursion was a great hit among the students as well as us, teachers as it was not only extremely informative, but also very interesting and enjoyable. They persisted with asking us when we could all go again! Reported by Ms. Gandharvi Mukherjee.