Innovation lands science teacher on roll of honour

MUMBAI, OCT 28: There are ways of teaching the concept of vibration and its translation into sound. The conventional way would be to simp...

MUMBAI, OCT 28: There are ways of teaching the concept of vibration and its translation into sound. The conventional way would be to simply pick up any theory book and rattle off the definition. R Saraswathy Iyer8217;s way is to bang a duster vigorously on a hard surface, making science very real and true-to-life indeed.

A hands-on experience with what is considered an esoteric world has always marked Iyer8217;s interactions with her students. Which is why Iyer, convenor of the Training, Programmes amp; Controller of Competitions for Greater Bombay Science Teacher Association GBSTA at the Nehru Science Centre NSC, is the only Indian science teacher among 34 teachers the world over to be named to the US-based Association of Science-Technology Centres ASTC Honour Roll of Teachers for 1999. Iyer has been honoured for her exemplary collaboration with the NSC in improving the quality of science education in schools. She received the certificate on Tuesday at NSC.

The Washington-based ASTC is the nerve centre of allscience-technology centres in the world. Iyer 59 now also features on ASTC8217;s website, astc.org. Since 1984, the Honour roll has recognised more than 650 teachers who have ventured beyond the conventional requirements of the school curriculum to stimulate the students8217; interest in science and technology. NSC recommended her name to ASTC following her selection by a committee of experts.

The Director of NSC, G S Rautela, told Express Newsline, 8220;She was selected on the basis of her maximum utilisation of NSC resources for students to make science interesting.8221; A teacher at Fatima High Shool at Ghatkopar, Iyer retired as vice principal from Kamla Junior College, Khar. She has been teaching science and English for more than three decades. A student of South Indian Education Society at Sion and then SNDT University, Iyer graduated in biology before joining Fatima in the sixties.

8220;Experiments and experience is the methodology of my teaching, quite different from the chalk and talk conceptusually prevalent in overcrowded class-rooms and the marks-obessed education system. Knowing science is not remembering a collection of facts. It has to make one curious enough to enquire, to investigate,8221; explained Iyer.

For Iyer, this is only the latest in a string of achievements. 8220;I received the state award 1976 for the best teaching aid from the Maharashtra State Audio Visual Department, Pune, and the National Council of Educational Research amp; Training NCERT national award 1980 for a paper on teaching life science,8221; she informed. She has helped set up science clubs in different schools as well as developed innovative teaching aids. An example: using red cellophane paper to explain the concept of conjuctivitis; or getting students to paste leaves in the shape of a peacock, thereby linking botany with zoology.

In her present capacity, Iyer holds workshops for student-winners of the Homi Bhabha Bal Vyagnik contest and conducts state-sponsored in-service teachers8217; training programmes andstudent-level competitions and exhibitions at the regional and state level.

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And to ensure that these initiatives have the desired impact on students, GBSTA will conducting evaluations among students who attend our workshops to ascertain how such programmes heighten the status of science for them,8221; said Iyer. 8220;We are also been talking about setting up another science museum in the suburbs apart from the present NSC at Worli,8221; she added.

Iyer feels that any such programme or workshop needs to cater to the average and below average student, many of whom are found in teaching these days. 8220;I am always available is any school wishes to conduct workshops for students,8221; she said. Any takers? Phone in 5136445.