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Science teaching with a difference

Eklavya is an NGO in Madhya Pradesh working for education and science popularisation through a variety of methods. Spread over thirteen districts of M.P., they run ``Chakmak'' Science Clubs for children, local water table management efforts, employment generation based on traditional skills and so on. I will focus here on one of their endeavours, the so called Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program (HSTP). It is a science curriculum with a difference and it is bound to interest everyone interested in science or education.

At the outset, HSTP has to be distinguished from many efforts for ``science popularisation'', in the sense that it is a program actually running as school curriculum. Whereas activities like science fairs and do-it-yourself activity books have their own value, a regular school curriculum has very different imperatives and presents totally new challenges. In the following I will first present the basic philosophy, aspects of its implementation, and then several features which make the whole program a rather comprehensive package. I do not belong to Eklavya so the views presented are my own, formed over some years of topical participation as a resource person.



 
next up previous
Next: Guided discovery Up: Learning to question : Previous: Why science eludes us
U. A. Yajnik
2002-01-09