Let’s understand the existence of life!
The central role of experiments and practical work in the science curriculum is universally accepted. A balanced science curriculum should not only give due emphasis to both theory and experiments but also integrate these complementary aspects of the subject in the teaching-learning process. Present-day science is the result of the creative interplay of observations, experimentation, and theoretical inferences. The importance of practical work in science education has also been recognized and greatly emphasized in education for the past several decades. There are several ways in which experiments facilitate and improve the learning of science. First and foremost, experiments help students develop the right perspective of science, namely that science is not just a theoretical abstraction – it is an attempt to describe the working of the real world around us. A hypothesis or idea in science is acceptable only if observations and experiments confirm it. Second, experiments are among the most effective ways to generate interest in science. For many students, an apparently ‘dry’, ‘uninteresting’ fact of a theory textbook can become live and exciting when translated into an experiment. Third, experiments promote the basic skills and competencies of doing science: procedural and manipulative skills, observation skills, skills of representing and interpreting data, and the accompanying conceptual and critical abilities.
For these various reasons, promoting activity and experiment-based learning has been at the heart of efforts aimed at improving science education in our school.
Have you ever wondered what makes up your skin, organs or muscles, or the structure of a plant? Fasten your seatbelts. You are about to see the presentations on the same explained by the students. Watch the videos here…………..
Onion skin is an excellent specimen to show plant cells. For animal cells, we used dyed cheek cells from our own cheek. The students of class 9A were very excited to observe the structure of the cells which they had learnt theoretically in the class. Cells are the building blocks that create life.
After performing the activity, the students were able to tell the significant differences between plant and animal cell organelles. They could observe a cell wall, vacuoles, and the plasma membrane. Plant cells have a rigid cell wall surrounding the plasma membrane. This wall gives the cells their rectangular structure and helps plants stand upright without the need for an internal reinforcing structure, such as bones or an exoskeleton.
Plant cells also have a single, large vacuole. The function of this organelle is to store water and sap. The vacuole increases and decreases in size depending on the amount stored in them. When plants lack water, the vacuole shrinks, making the cell cave in on itself and causing the plant to droop. Animal cells can have vacuoles, but they are smaller, more numerous, and have different functions.
The world that is all around you is so big and vast, and yet so small that you probably have never seen it.