Let students learn by experimenting

Updated on: Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A good education system should encourage students to learn by doing, Nobel laureate Richard R. Ernst has said.

Mr. Ernst won the Noble Prize in chemistry in 1991 for his contributions to the development of the methodology of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.
Powerful tool

He said education was the most powerful tool capable of bringing in positive developments in the world. Students could learn better if they were allowed to experiment and work more in the laboratory, he said while speaking at a conference on Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, which began at the KSR College of Technology in Tiruchengode on Monday.

The institutions should provide hands-on experience and the chance to “do-it-yourself" to stimulate interest in young persons to do something new.

“The trial and error method is the best way to learn new things,” he told the participants of the conference.

Mr. Ernst urged the teachers to be good role models for their students, apart from guiding them to learn from experience. “The younger generation today do not have proper role models that they can follow. Teachers can be better role models,” he said.

Referring to climate change, Mr. Ernst said that natural resources in the world had been exploited to a greater extent, causing huge damage to the environment. The younger generation should come together and bring in new ideas to address problems concerning environment.

Earlier, inaugurating the conference, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Director Baldev Raj highlighted the growth opportunities in nanotechnology and called upon the education institutions to work together in the programmes for capacity building in this field. The conference was sponsored by various government agencies and private organisations.

Let students learn by experimenting

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