Dineshkumar Ponnusamy

A spider can see in all direction through his 8 eyes??

A biggest shell has 256 eyes??

Is it??? I didn’t know..!

Do you remember the old way of learning science “The Aim at top, followed by Procedure/ Theorems and ending by Conclusion/Inference” ?

How about learning it more joyfully ?

How about learning chemistry , physic , biology with simple things occurring in our daily life?

At Igate in front of the ICARE CSR group Mr.Atul Nagras

opened the session explaining Seva Sahayog and the

need to bring interest towards learning and sceince , in the children at Abhyasikas.

Mr. Anand Ghaisas (Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education , anandghaisas@gmail.com) showed us wonderfully how to connect those simple activities of our routine to principles in the science text books.

His first tip was to be a child when teaching children. Play with them , have fun , surprise them and make them think for answers for alternatives. Through this make them interested towards science.

v Have you ever seen hole in your hand?

Simply roll a piece of paper and place this binocular

in front of your one eye , keep both eyes open.

Place the palm of other hand in front of your other open eye,

half way near the roll.

You’ll see a HOLE in your palm J

Ask why?? J J

The Rhodospin at the back of our eye senses light , it takes approx. 1/60th of a second to reset.

Since the light intensity coming through the rolled tube is high and on the palm is darker , so our eyes

see the image as seen through the hole and hence hole in the palm.

Guess any animals with more than 2 eyes J

Yes a spider has 8 eyes.

4 in the front , 2 on sides and 2 at the back and hence can see any all directions.

Ever noticed a shell ?

In each arch of a shell it has 4 eyes , 2 on top part of arch and 2 at the bottom.

Largest shell has 256 eyes.

An eye popping fact isn’t it ? J J

v To explain reflex action Anandji played a scale game, where one has to catch a vertical falling scale.

At what point one catches the scale shows the reflexes of our brain.

Did we know that our eyes sense first , then ear, then nose , then touch and then mouth ?

Its same as saying the sequence as Light , sound ,smell , feel and then taste.

Whatever dissolves in our saliva can only be tasted.

v To prove this sequence , that we depend on sound first than touch , we played another interesting game. 

A simple plastic brush ( one used for washing clothes) is used in this game.

A participant if taped by hand on his back by Anandji then he should raise his hand , if scratched by brush on his back then he should not react.

After couple of genuine tries , Anandji tapped the person on his back but scratched the brush on his own body to make the sound at the same time.

Since the tap(touch) and sound was at the same time , the participant perceived the sound as reality and acted accordingly J J

It was fun watching it happen over and over again , proving our mind registers sound better than touch.

SOUND

We always wonder how to explain in practical Sound and sound waves.

Anandji made a simple device using some 30 plastic straws

Stuck to a selotape(adhesive tape) horizontally in center

At a distance of around 2 cms. (Check the picture)

Holding the 2 ends of the tape ,

just tap on the 1st straw and a wave is seen

flowing to and fro in the starw line.

Holding it vertically we can show the amplitude of the wave.

  

Simple paper whistle



A simple paper made whistle can make a sound upto 20K dbs,

This sound is made by the vibrating paper when air is blown in it.

WHAT THE HECK IS BERNOULLI'S PRINCIPLE??

To explain Bernoulli's principle, what best way than to use a simple plastic flexible pipe (the one used as washing machine water outlet).

Hold one end in hand a circle the other loose/long end in air above your head. A whistle sound is heard.

If the open end of pipe holding in your hand is blocked then the sound stops.

Reason is that while the open end of the pipe is circling , it displaces air at the open end of the piple and pressure reduces , so the air is sucked inside the pipe. This air flows through the pipe and creates sound.

v When air expands suddenly its pressure drops down.

This can be simply proved by a plastic funnel and a

tabletennis ball.

Keeping the ball in the funnel , try blowing out the ball by

blowing air from the small end of the funnel tube.

As the air from small tube and expands when reaching the bigger

end of funnel , so pressure drops and hence unable to push the light table tennis ball.

And now here’s a small lil story of a boy (Rajesh? J ) who has to walk 5KM to his home , holding a brim full of milk in an open steel can with a handle. He cannot take the risk of spilling even drops of milk way back home on the uneven road.

So what do he do now?

He tied a rope to the handle of the can and rotated the 

can above his head all the way back.

The centrifugal force on the milk didn’t allow it to

spill out of the can J Simple since principle used in

day to day task, isn’t it? J

Centrifugal force expained so easily JJ

WHO DOESN’T LOVE MUSIC ? SO LET’S HEAR SOMEJ

v Clean your fingers of any oil and dirt. Wet them and rub them circularly over an empty wine glass , holding the glass at the bottom by other hand. The imperpections on your fingers produce a vibration in the glass and creates a musical sound.

Now ask some one to pour water in the glass. The pitch of the sound keeps changing creating a nice music.

We can hear full 2 octaves out of this experiment.

Anandji depicted this same experiment witj a bell (or a singing tibetian bowl ).

NOW SOME FUN TO LEARN ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE:

v Fill a glass with water , place a cardboard,

paper covering it and invert it.

Neither the water nor the paper falls of.

This can be explain the outside atmospheric

air pressure pushing the paper over the glass.

Try using a ball instead of paper. It still works the same way.

v Anandji then filled a 1 liter plastic Pepsi bottle with water.

The cap of which had a hole in it, Still inverting the bottle did not spill the water.

The surface tension of drop of water being larger than the hole prevented it from spilling out.

On pressing the bottle water spills down with force.

When bottle is moved around to move the water in circular motion, it forms a tornado type shape in bottle. The water immediately rushes out of the hole. This is because the centrifugal force works now on the circling water and pushes it away from the center. This allows the air to pass in and water rushes out. To stop it just give a slight jerk.

Wasn't it fun to learn science the simple experimental way? I bet it was. All the participants enjoyed.

So who is with us to try and explain this experiments with the kids of the Abhyasikas in the slums?

The kids will surely develop interest towards science , towards learning.

And what you get in return is the smile on the face of this young kids and a bright future of India.

Contact Seva Sahayog @020-25657657 to get more information about how you can help us in this initiative.