The Science Fair at Vidya Vardhan School was always an exciting affair. There were a number of stalls (never less than 50), entertainment booths and of course refreshments ! There were two basic rules. One, everything should be handled by students and two, everything - even the entertainment booths and refreshment stalls - had to have a scientific base !
- Make use of bullet points or bulleted lists.
- Use pictures and diagrams and label them.
- Use pictograms, graphs, pie-charts etc. to show numerical date.
- Plan all your posters, charts properly before you start making the.
- Make a rough 'mini-copy' before you begin work on the big, final poster or chart.
- Don't forget to check your spellings, sentences or other errors in the 'mini-copy' itself.
- Use different colors to highlight important features, but use them judiciously.
- If you have used any text, pictures, diagrams, etc. from elsewhere, acknowledge the source.
- The oral presentations o speeches should be short and to the point - 2 to 3 minutes at the most.
- They should be directly related to the model, demonstration or specimens exhibited in the stall.
- Be confident when you make a presentation.
- Rehearse the speech well.
- Be ready to answer relevant questions. Practice doing that with your friends.
- Make use of the visuals or graphics in the stall. Point to the relevant parts when you speak.
- Be polite, be pleasant when you talk to the visitors. If you don't know the answer to a question, say so. But later on, try to find the answer.
Mr. Gizzard explained the importance of using the scientific method to find the answers to the questions relating to the physical world around us. He was happy to see the stalls, especially the ones the showed simple methods of identifying food adulteration. He appreciated the fact that in most of the stalls, visitors could also try out the various science experiments and models. He gave a special pat on the back to the Clean Brigade. The brigade members made rounds of the Fair spreading the message of cleanliness. But that was not all. They had vowed to keep the school Premises spick ad span during the Fair, though they expected more than a thousand visitors and half as many stall holders - they were a disciplined lot, but what with so many activities and experiments going on, it was bound to create a lot of litter ! They were well - equipped with garbage cans, scoops, brooms and wipes.
Young Scientist
A Fountain at Your Fingertip
What You need:
- Make a small hole in the lid of the bottle and insert a small plastic tube/straw through the hole. Secure the tube with the help of glue or adhesive tape.
- Make a small hole in the side of the bottle, near its bottom. Insert another piece of straw/tube in the hole and secure it with the help of glue or adhesive tape.
- Now, place a balloon in the bottle and fit its mouth on the rim of the bottle as shown.
- Now, suck through the hole in the side of the bottle. What do you see? Yes ! The balloon gets inflated inside the bottle.
- Now, cover the hole in the side with a finger and ______
(a) Pour water into the balloon.(b) Put the lid with the straw on the bottle and screw it on tight.
6. Now, remove Your finger from the side hole. What do you see ? A fountain leaping out of the straw in the lid ! 7. Note how long your fountain lasts.
A Shower at your Fingertip
What You need :
- Make a hole in the base of the can, using the nail and the hammer. Take care not to hurt your fingers.
- Make a number of tiny holes in the lid of the can, as shown. See that your holes are evenly spaced, as in a sieve.
- Now, cover the hole in the base with your finger and fill the can with water.
- Put the lid (With the holes) on the can.
- Invert the can, still holding the finger on the hole.
- Hold the can over a plant and remove your finger from the hole. What do you see?
Your Own Book of Science
I
A Simple Experiment :
Lifting Ice !
What you do :
- Place an ice cube in a dish.
- Place a piece of thread on it.
- Sprinkle some common salt on and near the thread on the ice cube.
- Wait for a few seconds.
- Hold the two ends of the thread and pick them up carefully.
IIPuzzles in Your Surroundings Why does it hail even in summer ?
Be a Craftsman!
Marbling
Many times you see fancy sheets of Paper with beautiful designs or prints. Would you like to prepare your own fancy sheets of paper? But remember to ask for your parents' permission and help to do it.What you need :A plastic bucket or a tub, Water, kerosene or turpentine, plain sheets of white or colored drawing paper, oil paints - blue, red, yellow, green etc.- a paintbrush, clips, etc.What you do :
- Fill three-fourths of the bucket or tub with water,
- Add kerosene or turpentine to the paints that you have in separate tins. This will make the paints thinner. Do it with the help of an adult.
- Add a few drops of paints to the water, using the paintbrush. Stir the water gently with the brush. You will see the paints ( colors) twirling around in Water.
- Now put the plain drawing paper sheet on the colored surface of water and press it lightly.
- Lift the sheet of paper carefully. You will see colorful shapes on the sheet.
- Use a clip to lift the sheet to avoid staining your fingers.
- Keep the sheet aside for a few moments to let it dry.
You can use your fancy paper sheets to make envelopes, greeting cards, or to make 'paper-craft' articles.You must have noticed that the oil paints dissolve in turpentine or kerosene but not in water. They float on water. That is why, we can use this technique to create fancy shapes on paper.Marble is a kind of hard stone which is usually white with dark veins inside. Marble can be polished very well. This process is called 'marbling' because the patterns created in this process look like the patterns in marble.
In the World of Dictionaries
Thus we see that a dictionary shows us many things.
- Words in a dictionary are usually arranged in alphabetical order.
- A dictionary tells us what a word means.
- A dictionary shows us how a word is Spell.
- A dictionary tells us how a word is pronounced.
- A dictionary shows us the different forms of the same word. For example, rose-roses, go-going-went-gone, etc.
- A dictionary tells us with the help of examples , how a word is used.
- A dictionary lists many other words / phrases related to that word.
- A dictionary points out the different meanings of words which have the same spelling.
- A dictionary also tells us the grammatical class to which a word belongs.
Visual dictionaries : Some dictionaries contain only 'visuals' or pictures. They do not have to explain the meaning in words, as the visuals speak for themselves. The visuals may be in the form of photographs, diagrams or hand drawn pictures. They are all labelled. In the same way, even complicated machines or systems are made simple in a visual dictionary.
Encyclopedic dictionaries : Encyclopedias are books that give a lot of information on a great number of topics. Encyclopedic dictionaries, too, give a lot more information about most of the words they contain. These dictionaries are usually quite thick and contain many more words than the smaller, ordinary dictionaries.
Computers and the internet have brought with them ' Online' dictionaries. They are very easy to use. You just type the word you want to look up and instantly you are shown its meaning, use, etc. You can even listen to the proper pronunciation of a word. A printed dictionary cannot do this.
Then there are some dictionaries that show how a word was used hundreds of years ago, how its use or meaning or spelling changed over the years and how it is used today.
A dictionary is a must for a student. You can begin with simple, attractive dictionaries and then learn to use the more difficult ones later. So, the next time you come across a difficult word, don't fret. Just look it up in a dictionary.
You can make your own dictionary. Write the meaning and other information about the words you plan to include in your dictionary, on cards of the same size. Use a separate card for each word. Arrange the cards in alphabetical order. Your dictionary is ready ! Moreover, you can add new words to this dictionary whenever you like.
Great Scientists
Great Scientists are persevering and never deterred by difficulties.
Michael Faraday is regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and inventors of modern times, and his work on electricity is still a subject of study, in the form of Faraday's Laws. But Few know his inspirational life story, which is all about courage and fighting against the adds. Michael faraday was born into a poverty - stricken family in a dirty London suburb. He suffered from a speech defect as a child. He would pronounce 'rabbit' as 'wabbit'. He could not even say his own name and would call himself 'Fawaday'. Other children laughed at him and teachers did not help him either When he was twelve, his mother was forced to take him out of school, thus putting an end to his formal education.
At thirteen however, he started working with a bookbinder, binding hundreds of book during the day and staying up all night tp read them. Reading thus became his obsession. One day he came across a book on electricity which had been sent to his master for binding . He stared reading it and was completely hooked. That was his first introduction to the subject of electricity, which soon became a lifelong fascination. Faraday was still poor at twenty - one. Once, a friend gave him a free ticket to a public lecture and demonstration by the renowned chemist Humphry Davy at London's Royal Institution. Davy's work on chemicals and electrical lighting was the subject of conversation among the scientists of that age. Seventy years later, across the Atlantic Ocean in the USA, the same work enabled Thomas Edison to produce the first consistent light bulb.
That day in 1812 Faraday was spellbound by Davy's lecture. He kept taking notes about the 'mysterious force of electric fluid'. He was so engrossed in the lecture that he forgot to applaud with the rest of the crowd. When he went back, his notes were so comprehensive that he bound them into a book, meaning to gift it to Davy some day. Faraday decided that day that he didn't just want to sell books, he wanted to be a great scientist - good enough to write his own books. Davy became his role model. But there was a problem. He did not have the social status, money or the education to pursue science. Faraday thought it would be wonderful if Davy became his mentor, but Davy did not agree initially. Faraday was not dejected ; he just kept trying.
Destiny had a strange plan in store for him. A few years later, chemical explosion happened inside Davy's lab and he was temporarily blinded. He now needed an assistant with an excellent memory to help him. He was reminded of Faraday and decided to hire him as his secretary . Davy never believed Faraday could do anything in the field of science going by social status and education. He therefore dismissed Faraday's aspirations and advised him to stick to bookbinding. But Faraday was relentless. He worked day and night and learnt as much as he could about Davy's experiments. Soon Faraday became indispensable to Davy, and was promoted to his lab assistant. This was his first step towards a scientific career. Though much of his job now was cleaning labs, at least he got to see some of Davy's leading experiments.
Even then Davy did not have much hope for Faraday. The Faraday got another chance to prove himself. One day Davy tried to re-create a famous electromagnetism experiment with fellow chemist William Wollaston, exploring why when an electric current is applied to a wire, it causes that wire to behave like a magnet. obviously, the forces were connected but nobody had figured out how to make it happen continuously. Davy believed that if he could find out why it happened and controlled it, there could be many practical application of the force. But he was unable to figure it out and was frustrated He then teased Faraday, asking him to try his hand at it after he was done cleaning the lab.
Within a few days, Faraday solved the problem. In fact, he went further and the result was the first induction motor, which converted electrical current into continuous mechanical motion. The induction motor spurred a revolution. Fans, air conditioning, sewing machines, photographs, power tools cars and even trains and aero plane engines grew out of this simple device which was born out of mockery directed at Faraday.
Faraday became a celebrity scientist overnight. Nobody now cared about his social status or education; this young man had just created a revolution. One would think, as a teacher Davy was happy at his pupil's achievement. But in reality he was jealous. People started telling Davy that of all his discoveries, the best was Faraday himself; this made him even more jealous. An angry Davy gave Faraday an impossible task to keep him out of his way. He handed him a piece of Bavarian glass which was used in the lenses in telescopes and microscopes, and asked him to reverse engineer it. Bavarian glass was manufactured by a secret complicated process and Davy knew that with the equipment available in the lab Faraday would never be able to accomplish the task. This piece of glass became a significant thing in his life.
Faraday had a never - give - up attitude and he respected Davy. So he accepted the assignment, despite knowing that it would be very difficult. He toiled for four years, with no help from, Davy, and as expected, failed. Faraday never learned the secret, and this remained his first failure as a scientist To remind himself of these difficult times, he kept a single glass brick on his shelf as a souvenir. This would inspire him during difficult times.
In 1829, Davy died and Faraday succeeded him as head of the laboratory. He was free to pursue whatever he liked, and he made another revolutionary discovery. He notice that if he moved a magnet, it could produce electrical current ; thus he could now convert motion into electricity. This is how the electrical generator was born something still used today to generate all kinds of power, like dynamos and other devices. Faraday was now a legend. In 1840, he developed memory loss, which continued for the rest of his life. But the disease did not stop him. He persevered, stated a complicated experiment to prove that light was closely related to electricity and magnetism - a novel thought in those times.
Remember that piece of Bavarian glass Faraday had kept on his shelf ? He was determined to convert the reminder of his first major failure to an instrument of great success. He used the same glass now to show that in the presence of a magnet, light could be isolated into a single wave rather than spreading out randomly in all directions, a concept called polarization. He then took the age - old experiment of sprinkling iron filings on a sheet of paper near a magnet, making circular patterns. He went on to prove that these patters were not a property of the iron filings; in fact they were due to the invisible magnetic fields that filled the empty space around the magnet and hence disturbed the filing. This is where his lack of formal education went against him. Faraday did not know much about advanced mathematics, so he just copied the iron filing patters with his hand. He was unable to explain them in the form of mathematical equations. He made hundreds o such drawings but without equations, they were not accepted.
Fortune Favored the brave Faraday once again when he met James Maxwell, a wealthy, educated physicist well versed in mathematics. He was willing to work with Faraday. It was Maxwell who translated Faraday's idea into a set of equations that are now called Maxwell's equations. Their combined work has helped us in many ways. Electronics and communication system today are designed around their discoveries. Some day, we might even be able to communicate with aliens across different galaxies using the products of these discoveries. Faraday's life started with difficulties, but as a great scientist he met each difficulty with perseverance and conviction. He was given impossible tasks, which he undertook as challenges and opportunities. He epitomizes what the Walt Disney character Pinocchio said :
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