Come summer and the Indian school system has a way of making its presence felt. During the holidays the student given a task to prepare a science project. This is a yearly ritual since not many teachers like students being free (Their Motto: We hate you). I am not intending to say that science projects are always a “PAIN” but it can help you in many ways. For example, it will teach each parents the Newton’s third law “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. Since you shouted at your son, he shall remain silent till the holiday ends and then on the night before school reopening (when you have just entered the pajamas) shout “I HAVE A SCIENCE PROJECT TO BE DONE AND I NEED TO GO TO THE MALL”.
Basically any project can be classified as a science project, but this time around you son is sure to give you guideline details as to how to present them. The last minute running around in your pajamas for a project is a ritual that is most important part of any summer project. The project has to be delivered in a thick card board paper with proper calligraphic titles and all items bonded to the chart with proper adhesive etc. If any of these items are not used then the school authorities will out-rightly reject the science discovery which you have made. This may be one of the main reasons why many top Indian scientists have failed to win a Nobel Prize in Science. (They forgot the thick card board as a base, I guess)
Once you have returned home at the stroke of midnight like Cinderella (with one leg of the pajamas missing) and start to unfold the card board base you are all set. Set to think of some innovative and creative project – kindly allow 6 hours for your brain to rack up an award winning entry like the “Origin of Earth” which is instantly rejected by the panel consisting of your wife, son, the milk man and 700 cockroaches. After much deliberation you come to a conclusion that the prize winning entry would have to be clearly imaginative and original. So you can immediately drop out of the race, forget winning.
What you need is a project which can be done in 30 minutes with materials found in your unwashed kitchen and untidy bedroom. Ideally the women of the house would like to execute the project without any property damage (i.e. Your Life) which is why she volunteers to do the whole stuff. Based on advices from elders and past experience I am refraining myself from explaining the popular projects and previous year winning entries since it may require certain amount of plumbing and nuclear activities.
Irrespective of the topic you choose, the project has to be dived into 3 parts: (1) The Objective, (2) Some thing which goes after the objective and (3) The Conclusion (which should be nothing but the objective). If we fail to follow this policy the project shall be rejected. Perhaps this is why all government proposals get a quick nod, no one cares for item (2).
With not much of luck (I am certain) you are still glaring at the ceiling and looking for a topic such as “Waves”, “Gravity”, “Light”, “Cellular Phones” etc. The gravity is a good one considering that you can take pictures of you holding your baby down and then take another snap of the baby falling and then another snap of you picking up the baby. This proves that there is a lot of gravity around you.
The only problem with this experiment is that you don’t realize the actual gravity of the situation in hand. All you want to do is to come up with some idea which can be done in 10 minutes. So you are back to square one at “Our Solar System” which takes 10 minutes to prepare. Out of these ten minutes, 9 minutes are devoted to searching for plastic balls of various sizes and rubber bands to string them in order.
Anyway you made it for this year and this whole routine shall occur exactly the same time next year, until then you may not have any problems with Science. The only problem you now have a deal is that your son is not going to get a good grade. For good grades you need good projects and for good projects you need good amount of time to think. So think about it.
Note: I am off early from office; have to go to the mall for buying things for my son’s pre-kg project named “Prehistoric Farm Animals”.
Basically any project can be classified as a science project, but this time around you son is sure to give you guideline details as to how to present them. The last minute running around in your pajamas for a project is a ritual that is most important part of any summer project. The project has to be delivered in a thick card board paper with proper calligraphic titles and all items bonded to the chart with proper adhesive etc. If any of these items are not used then the school authorities will out-rightly reject the science discovery which you have made. This may be one of the main reasons why many top Indian scientists have failed to win a Nobel Prize in Science. (They forgot the thick card board as a base, I guess)
Once you have returned home at the stroke of midnight like Cinderella (with one leg of the pajamas missing) and start to unfold the card board base you are all set. Set to think of some innovative and creative project – kindly allow 6 hours for your brain to rack up an award winning entry like the “Origin of Earth” which is instantly rejected by the panel consisting of your wife, son, the milk man and 700 cockroaches. After much deliberation you come to a conclusion that the prize winning entry would have to be clearly imaginative and original. So you can immediately drop out of the race, forget winning.
What you need is a project which can be done in 30 minutes with materials found in your unwashed kitchen and untidy bedroom. Ideally the women of the house would like to execute the project without any property damage (i.e. Your Life) which is why she volunteers to do the whole stuff. Based on advices from elders and past experience I am refraining myself from explaining the popular projects and previous year winning entries since it may require certain amount of plumbing and nuclear activities.
Irrespective of the topic you choose, the project has to be dived into 3 parts: (1) The Objective, (2) Some thing which goes after the objective and (3) The Conclusion (which should be nothing but the objective). If we fail to follow this policy the project shall be rejected. Perhaps this is why all government proposals get a quick nod, no one cares for item (2).
With not much of luck (I am certain) you are still glaring at the ceiling and looking for a topic such as “Waves”, “Gravity”, “Light”, “Cellular Phones” etc. The gravity is a good one considering that you can take pictures of you holding your baby down and then take another snap of the baby falling and then another snap of you picking up the baby. This proves that there is a lot of gravity around you.
The only problem with this experiment is that you don’t realize the actual gravity of the situation in hand. All you want to do is to come up with some idea which can be done in 10 minutes. So you are back to square one at “Our Solar System” which takes 10 minutes to prepare. Out of these ten minutes, 9 minutes are devoted to searching for plastic balls of various sizes and rubber bands to string them in order.
Anyway you made it for this year and this whole routine shall occur exactly the same time next year, until then you may not have any problems with Science. The only problem you now have a deal is that your son is not going to get a good grade. For good grades you need good projects and for good projects you need good amount of time to think. So think about it.
Note: I am off early from office; have to go to the mall for buying things for my son’s pre-kg project named “Prehistoric Farm Animals”.
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