A Visit to the Pimpri Chinchwad Science Park
During my first year of teaching at St. Francis High School in Pune, I started to raise funds for my classroom to help facilitate activities and field trips for my children. Early in my second year of teaching, I used some of the funds to organise a field trip to the Pimpri Chinchwad Science Park which was located about 20 kilometres from school. Anusha was in town during that time so she joined us on the trip which added to the excitement for the kids!
An exhibit of a car with hydraulic steering and pneumatic brakes caught the fancy of many of the boisterous boys in my class!
Neat exhibits showing the evolution of man and the tools he used to make his life easier were also on display inside the main building.
An exhibit with mirrors all around at strategic angles ensured that I could be in a photograph while taking it! My kids loved making crazy expressions and seeing multiple reflections of their faces from different angles!
The head-in-a-plate exhibit was obviously a big hit too! It was so well-designed that it took my kids a few seconds to figure out how it worked!
Another set-up that my children found fascinating was one where they had to cast a shadow on a surface for about 15-20 seconds by standing between the surface and a bright light. Kids chose different poses and held them for that duration of time. Then, the light automatically switched off and the imprints of the shadow showed on the surface even after the kids left their original poses.
While many exhibits and content in the Science Park were beyond the grasp of a 5th standard student, the visit did show my kids the vast scope and real-life applications of science beyond their textbook. Having no access to laboratories and practical science experiments, such outings served as fans to their sparks of imagination and cemented the relationships that I share with my students beyond the walls of our classroom.
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| My students receiving instructions from a guide at the steps of the entrance to the Science Park. |
An exhibit of a car with hydraulic steering and pneumatic brakes caught the fancy of many of the boisterous boys in my class!
Neat exhibits showing the evolution of man and the tools he used to make his life easier were also on display inside the main building.
An exhibit with mirrors all around at strategic angles ensured that I could be in a photograph while taking it! My kids loved making crazy expressions and seeing multiple reflections of their faces from different angles!
The head-in-a-plate exhibit was obviously a big hit too! It was so well-designed that it took my kids a few seconds to figure out how it worked!
Another set-up that my children found fascinating was one where they had to cast a shadow on a surface for about 15-20 seconds by standing between the surface and a bright light. Kids chose different poses and held them for that duration of time. Then, the light automatically switched off and the imprints of the shadow showed on the surface even after the kids left their original poses.
While many exhibits and content in the Science Park were beyond the grasp of a 5th standard student, the visit did show my kids the vast scope and real-life applications of science beyond their textbook. Having no access to laboratories and practical science experiments, such outings served as fans to their sparks of imagination and cemented the relationships that I share with my students beyond the walls of our classroom.
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