Nurturing a spirit of inquiry

Updated on: Monday, December 21, 2009

The idea of inculcating a spirit of inquiry and research among school students has gained popularity. With several interesting initiatives aimed at fostering research at school level being taken, students interested in indulging in open-ended experiments seem to have a lot to look forward to.

From the efforts of the Tamil Nadu Council for Science and Technology to promote the concept of school students taking up research projects and the University of Madras setting up the Dr. ALM Centre for Basic Sciences Development, to the initiative of the Chennai-based PSBB Group of Schools to set up a research institute in collaboration with IIT-Madras, SASTRA University, Chennai Mathematical Institute and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, there are enough number of exciting opportunities for school students.

The excitement is guaranteed, says S. Vincent, member secretary of the Tamil Nadu Council for Science and Technology. The Council, which has been conducting the ‘Young Scientists Programme' for school students in summer, has had some very interesting projects from students.

“Students get a chance to work in laboratories of engineering colleges and universities, with the guidance of senior professors there. Students told us they found it very interesting and even volunteered to take up more projects just for sheer excitement of conducting experiments,” he adds. In May 2010 about 100 school students from 10 districts across the State would get to participate in the programme. “The idea is to orient students to basic sciences.”

The PSBB initiative, modelled on the programme offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for high school students during summer, also believes that allowing students to ask questions and conduct exploratory experiments will motivate them to pursue research.

In fact, it could even give students a new perspective on science and education itself, according to senior academics involved in the project. As someone who conceived the idea, Mrs. Y.G.Parthasarathy, Dean and director of the PSBB group, is confident that hands-on training and actual experimenting will excite students.

“Many of my old students who are alumni of this programme in the U.S. still keep in touch with their mentors and update them about their academic pursuits. It is important that we give our children opportunities to learn in an open-ended way. The aim is to get out of learning by rote,” Mrs. Y.G.P adds.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Madras, G. Thiruvasagam, also says that school students have enormous potential for scientific research. Getting Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan to inaugurate the university's centre for basic sciences and instituting the ‘Young Scientists Award' for students showing promise are aimed at motivating students to consider research.

“Who knows, a student sitting in a remote village could emerge a reputed scientist and come up with a valuable innovation. How do we tap their potential unless the right opportunities are provided?” he asks.

Such attempts also seek to promote the habit of inter-disciplinary exploration, academics observe. “We would be happy to look at research proposals in the humanities or social sciences, too, for one could look at the connection they have with science,” Prof. Thiruvasagam adds.

When textbook exercises and school experiments are largely directed towards arriving at a “correct answer,” such attempts seek to offer scope to ask questions without the pressure of having to get any such right answer. Instead, students could just keep probing till a point when an unexpected answer unfolds, perhaps, pleasantly surprising the world as a novel innovation.

Nurturing a spirit of inquiry

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