Unit - 6 Co-curricular Activities

                                   Science Club Project Ideas

Demonstrations of experiments and talks by visiting scientists:

The club could liase with scientists from NECSA and other nearby scientific institutions who could

visit the schools to speak to learners about exciting topics and show them some “science in action”.

This could also be an opportunity for learners to ask about careers in science.

Brainstorming sessions/forum discussions for eager young scientists:

The club could organise for its members (and other interested learners) to meet for talk sessions

where current scientific topics could be discussed. This session could be used to talk about ideas

that might help solve some of the world’s many problems. With a little more initiative, real

scientists and university students could be invited to sit in at these sessions.

Bridge building competitions:

Such competitions are relatively simple to organise and yet extremely fun, educational and

enjoyable. For example, give participants 4 sheets of A4 paper and ask them to build a bridge across

two desks. Then test each bridge by hanging a bottle from it and slowly filling it with water. The

bridge that can hold the most water wins. As you can imagine, bridges are not the only things one

can build. The competition could deal with wheels;  catapults; towers; steam cars - just about

anything. To make it more interesting, invite a professional engineer to test the bridges and to

explain why some designs work better than others.

Inter-school project exhibitions or science fairs:

The most exciting part of such a club is the opportunity to meet people from other schools. If

neighbouring schools were encouraged to form similar clubs, then these clubs could communicate

with each other and form some joint organisation with representatives from each school. This larger

group could then organise much bigger projects such as regional science expo’s and other

interesting inter-school events. 

Problem-solving challenge:

This is an easy-to-organise event that would be fun as well as intellectually challenging. The club

could find interesting mathematics or science problems that lie within the capability of the targeted

learners and offer small prizes to those who can solve them. Depending on the level of difficulty,

there could also be prizes for group entries.

Mini research projects:

Many learners may exhibit great interest in a certain aspect of science but lack the motivation to

pursue it. By providing some incentive for them (e.g. obtaining partners from industry who may

also be interested in a certain topic) the club will facilitate and encourage these learners to research

topics that they find interesting.

Tours/excursions to scientific institutions such as NECSA:

Most scientific institutions such as NECSA would welcome the opportunity to take learners for a

tour of their facilities, especially if they were approached by a structured organisation such as a

science club. In this way learners can have the opportunity to visit and see for themselves what goes

on in the scientific world. The science club could  also arrange for tours to universities where

learners can obtain an idea of what career they would like to pursue

Lending Libraries” for sharing of laboratory equipment and texts:

Many of our schools have poor scientific facilities such as laboratory equipment and texts. The

science clubs from different schools could communicate with one another and establish some sort of

lending programme whereby all schools involved would benefit. Such projects may even inspire

outside organizations to sponsor more equipment to such a group of schools.

Student exchange programmes:

Depending on how far and wide this idea spreads, science clubs could organise that certain students

visit other schools from different communities via  exchange programmes. In this way they can

bring back ideas and information from other schools and thus benefit from other learners’

experiences. This helps not only build the experience of the learner but also helps bring the people

of the country closer together.

Buddy scheme:

Scientist/engineers in industry could offer to mentor/buddy learners. Ideally the learner would be

such that he/she is keen on pursuing the same or similar path that buddy has taken. This allows for

closer communication with scientists, dealing with more individual focus. One scientist/engineer

could be a buddy to many protégés.

Extra Tuition:

Collaboration between the participating schools would allow for sharing of teaching methods/ideas.

This could possibly be extended to extra tuitions with the best practices being transferred among

schools.

Peace Garden:

Start a peace garden where you would grow food for children at school or the local community.

This project would incorporate numerous other mini-projects such as: recycling, monitoring rainfall

and weather patterns, experimenting with different seeds, irrigation systems, etc.

Translational learning:

Turn as many aspects of syllabus into something practical, for example:

- look at wiring diagram of school to find parallel/series circuits and find ways to optimise

this.

- look at possibilities of hydro-electric schemes

- build steam cars

- lend support to peace garden by testing alkalinity in soil or pollution levels in water

- build a web-site for the school

Basically finding ways to relate the things we learn in the classroom to real-life situation

                        Science Fairs: Why and How?

Why do a school site Science Fair?

Science Fair is an opportunity for students, individually or as members of a team, to actually apply the skills they have learned in their study of science. For students who have not done any science, the science fair project will be difficult. But if your class and your school has made an effort to give students lots of experience solving problems, a science fair is a real chance for the kids to show what they've learned. It is also a chance to show the students and the school community how important and useful science is. Community partners, such as businesses that have made donations, can be invited as well to see the students' work.

Deadlines and Timelines

Many teachers find more success if they break the science fair project down into manageable chunks for students, and have the different parts due on different days. Give students a timeline with due dates for their topic question, experimental design, display design, results, draft reports and final display. The book, The Complete Science Fair Handbook, by Fredericks and Asimov, (1990, Good Year Books) has two detailed timelines, as well as a great deal of practical advice for teachers and students. You may want to give students a chance to work on portions of the project in class, and peer review can be a valuable way for students to get ideas for improving their projects. This also gives you, the teacher, a chance to make it clear what your expectations are for their product.

Possible Problems

1. The Great Volcano: You have to decide what kind of projects you wish to see. If students are given little guidance, the majority of projects you will get will fall into two categories: the vinegar and baking soda volcano, and the Tide detergent test. If this is ok with you, fine. I find it pretty dull, and I don't think students learn much from imitating TV commercials. The time to deal with this is at the beginning. Make it clear to your students that you want them to tackle a question that is new to them, not the same thing they did last year. Have them turn in their project topics ahead of time, and give them feedback if the projects look unacceptable. (Scientist could help with this step.)

2. The Rich get Richer: Some students have parents who are scientists or engineers. Other students are living in foster homes or shelters. How do we cope with the different resources these students bring to a project such as this? How does an impoverished student with no computer compete when it is time to create an attractive display? First of all, try to make it clear that this is a student project. Parents can be used as a resource, but they should not do the work (build the equipment, write the report, or build the display. Second, we teachers should provide space in our class schedule for some of the critical steps in the process. There should be class time for brainstorming and critiquing project ideas, practice collecting and graphing data, and writing conclusions. The students should be presented with models of good science projects, so they know what you are looking for.

Must it be judged?

Some schools bring scientists or science educators in to judge the student entries, but this is completely optional. You can give participation certificates just as well. However, your site is limited in the number of projects you can send to the District Science Fair, so you need to figure out a way to decide who goes on.

Must projects follow the "Scientific Method"?

Many teachers use a traditional scientific method approach. It should be made clear to students that working scientists do not always follow such a rigid sequence of steps. On the other hand, for a project of this type, the students should clearly state their question, hypothesis, materials and procedure, present their results and a conclusion summarizing their findings. See the Web Resources below for a variety of models you might wish to use.

How does this relate to an Inquiry approach?

For me, this is the big question. I want my students to develop their curiousity, and their skill at developing and answering their own questions. If the science fair won't serve that goal, I do not have time for it! I see the science fair project as a chance for students to work more independently on the same kinds of investigations we have been doing in class. We have been learning to pose questions, to collect data, and to write conclusions that explain our results. I see the science fair as a chance for them to apply these skills. I hope we can add a more student-centered component to the District Science Fair, featuring students sharing their results with each other, rather than just creating a display as an end product.

                                    Science Exhibitions

The purpose of Science exhibitions is to develop scientific attitude in the young generation of

our country to make them realize the interdependence of science, technology and society and

the responsibility of the scientists of tomorrow.    These objectives may be achieved by

presenting the exhibits as an exciting experience of creativity of children, innovations through

improvisations of science kits, and various devices and models for providing solutions to many

present and future socio‐economic problems particularly those confronted in the rural areas,

using available materials and local resources.

The exhibitions will help children and teachers to learn from each other experiences and

motivate them to design and develop something new and novel.   It will also provide a medium

for popularizing science and increasing awareness among the public towards it.   The objectives

of organizing science exhibitions may briefly be put as follows:

 stimulating interest in science and technology and inculcating scientific spirit in younger

generations;

 exploring and encouraging scientific and technological talent among children;  

 inculcating in them a sense of pride in their talent;  

 providing exploratory experiences, encouraging creative thinking and promoting

creative thinking and promoting psychomotor and manipulative skills among children

through self devised exhibits or models or simple apparatus;

 encourage problem solving approach and developing the appropriate technologies,

especially for rural areas and integrating scientific ideas with daily life situations;

 popularizing science among masses and creating an awareness regarding the role of

science and technology in socio‐economic and sustainable growth of the country;

                                   Field Trips and Excursions

Arrangement of educational field tours and excursions is considered now as an essential part of school programmes. By moving outdoors, the pupils get concrete information and enrich their personal experience. The mental horizon of pupils gets widened.

Again, during the course of trip all arrangements of travelling, boarding and lodging are made by pupils. This provides a practical training to develop the qualities of initiative, resourcefulness and self-confidence.

The educational trips can be of varied interests. Visits to museums, forts, temples, caves, forests, mountains, lakes, valleys, canals and corn fields help in supplementing the teaching of social studies history, geography etc. Excursion to Red Fort, Agra Fort,

Taj Mahal, Elora and Ajanta bring reality, clarity and vividness to the "dead matter" of history. Visits to industrial establishments, factories, laboratories etc. are very helpful to the students taking up science.

As per organization of Field Trips and Excursions it is very necessary that it should be properly planned to achieve the maximum benefit from excursion. It must be wisely be conceived, ably conducted and intelligently evaluated.

The teacher in-charge should posses’ complete information regarding the place of visit. He must impart all the valuable knowledge to the pupils. The railway reservation of accommodation for entire route of movement and lodging at each place of stay should be thoroughly planned before-hand. All haste should be avoided. The entire work must be divided among the workers and group-leaders, proper budgeting should be done and economy mast be observed.

Recreational activities like singing, storytelling, photography should be organized side by side. Lastly, care must be taken for maintenance of perfect discipline in the entire course of excursion.

The field trip is a type of laboratory experience which has many possi- bilities for providing activities appropriate to a number of important goals. Its use has been minimized by most teachers even though they may admit that it has some valuable possibilities. Like any other pro- cedure in science teaching, it can be most functional only when it is carefully planned. There are a number of details concerned with plan- ning if a trip is to be efficiently and effectively conducted. Usually it is 
some of these details that cause teachers to forego the trip as a school activity.Sometimes such terms as school excursion, school journey, or labora- tory trip have been used instead of field trip. Often the latter term has been applied particularly to biology or to nature-study trips. However, there seems little choice between various names for this activity. The term field trip is used here to mean any activity involving one or more students or a class away from the school classroom and grounds pri- 
marily planned in connection with classwork. Because field trips do have the possibilities of being so valuable and interesting, it seems worth- while to indicate in detail some ways in which they may be planned most successfully. 

Purposes of Field Trips

Perhaps it is unnecessary to suggest that a field trip should not be taken simply because it is customary to have a field trip. As with all ex- periences, field trips should be used when this type of activity seems to be the most appropriate to achieve certain objectives. It is important, therefore, that both teachers and students are clear as to the purpose of a particular field trip.There are, of course, many purposes or objectives toward which field trips may contribute. Amongst these may be mentioned the following:

	To stimulate interest and motivate students
	To collect material
	To gain firsthand observations and contacts
	To obtain an overview or introduction to a unit of work