Innovative Projects for Science Learning
In the International Year of Chemistry, 2011
C K Seth
Department of Chemistry, Hindu College, Delhi, INDIA
ckseth@hotmail.com
The year 2011 is a special year because 100 year back well known scientist Madam Curie got
Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The IUPAC and UNESCO have taken the initiative to celebrate this
year as the year of Chemistry all over the world. In India IYC 2011 is celebrated in many ways.
We have also made an effort to popularize science through Hands on activities in particular this
year. A number of innovative projects were carried by the Science Education Centre (SEC) in
collaboration with Hindu College (HC), Vigyan Vikas Kendra (VVK) and Indian Science Congress
Association, Delhi Chapter (ISCA) during the International Year of Chemistry-2011. The projects
in
the
form
of
Hands
on
activities,
competitions
and
symposium/conference/colloquium/lecture cum demonstration are carried out at various
institutions for different level of students, teachers and scientists. These activities are
mentioned in the following paragraphs in chronological order.
1. May 2, 2011: Science Colloquium
 Lectures by Professor Monika Dutta, Delhi University on Chemistry of Gem Stones; by Dr
Aruna Kaushik, DRDO on Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry and by Dr CK Seth, Hindu
College on SI Units and their uses. The Chief Guest for the occasion was Dr. Bibek
Bandyopadhyay, Director Solar Energy Centre, Ministry of New and Renewable Sources of
Energy (Government of India). Around 150 students from various classes and PGTs of
Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Mathematics attended this programme. Certificates were
distributed to the meritorious students for excellent performance during 2010 Vagiyanika- a
Science quiz conducted by SEC in the International Year of Chemistry. The teachers were
appreciated for the preparation of questions for the quiz.
OUTCOME:
o
o
Three lectures cum demonstrations and the inauguration of IYC-2011 activities to be
carried out collectively in SEC and HC.
The function commemorates the celebrations of IYC 2011
Chief Guest awarding certificate
Resource Person delivering lecture
2. May 7, 2011: Brainstorming Session
 34 PGTs of Chemistry, Physics and Biology from 14 schools attended and discussed about
the laboratory syllabus. They found a number of experiments mentioned in the curriculum
and are not being carried out in usual laboratories. It is because of the availability of
facilities and or unawareness of the procedure of doing these experiments. It was decided
the SEC will design and develop some of such experiments and then train teachers to carry
them with their students in their own laboratories.
OUTCOME:
Design and develop of a few experiments
The teacher’s list is as follows:
Seema Arya
Tripti Verma
Ruchika
Vinod Kumar
Madhu Mahajan
Soneya Sharma
Kavita Mathur
Kusum Varshney
Promila Kohly
Dr. Renu Saxena
Dipti Trehan
Sunmeet Kaur
Shipra Verma
Poonam Mehta
D.A.V, P. School, Ashok Vihar, Phase- IV
D.A.V, P. School, Ashok Vihar,Phase-IV
D.A.V, P. School, Ashok Vihar, Phase-IV
D.A.V P. School, Vasant Kunj
Hansraj Model School, Punjabi Bagh
Hansraj Model School, Punjabi Bagh
Hansraj Model School, Punjabi Bagh
D.A.V P. School, East of Kailash
D.A.V P. School, East of Kailash
D.A.V P. School, East of Kailash
D.A.V P. School, Pushpanjali
D.A.V P. School, Pushpanjali
D.A.V P. School, Sector- 14, Gurgaon
D.A.V P. School, Sector- 14, Gurgaon
BIOLOGY
PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
PHYSICS
BIOLOGY
PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
BIOLOGY
CHEMISTRY
PHYSICS
PHYSICS
CHEMISTRY
Guncha Narang
DLF P. School, Sahibabad
BIOLOGY
Anupam Kulsherstha
DLF P. School, Sahibabad
CHEMISTRY
Dr. Archana Sharma
Vivekanand P. School, B-Block
CHEMISTRY
DR.H.K. Singh
Cambridge School, Noida
PHYSICS
Mamta Rishi
Cambridge School, Noida
CHEMISTRY
Meru Chandra
D.L.D.A.V, Shalimar Bagh
PHYSICS
Sangeeta Sharma
S.K.Bhutani
D.L.D.A.V, Shalimar Bagh
D.L.D.A.V, Shalimar Bagh
BIOLOGY
CHEMISTRY
Meenu Sindhu
D.A.V.P.School, NH-3 Faridabad
PHYSICS
Charu
D.A.V.P. School, NH-3 Faridabad
BIOLOGY
Anshu Taneja
D.A.V.P. School, NH-3 Faridabad
CHEMISTRY
Sarita Tyagi
S.R.D.A.V.P. School, Dayanand Vihar
CHEMISTRY
Mamta Sharma
S.R.D.A.V.P. School, Dayanand Vihar
CHEMISTRY
Anita Nayyar
S.R.D.A.V.P. School, Dayanand Vihar
CHEMISTRY
G.Haridass
S.R.D.A.V.P. School, Dayanand Vihar
PHYSICS
Rajinder Bhatia
S.R.D.A.V.P. School, Dayanand Vihar
PHYSICS
P.P. Tiwari
S.R.D.A.V.P. School, Dayanand Vihar
PHYSICS
Sushma Hakoo
S.R.D.A.V.P.School, Dayanand Vihar
BIOLOGY
Kalyani Ghosh
S.R.D.A.V.P.School, Dayanand Viha
BIOLOGY
Upasna Kehar
S.R.D.A.V.P.School, Dayanand Vihar
CHEMISTRY
3. May 16, 18 -19, 2011: Workshop on Investigatory Science Projects
 Twenty six XII standard students fabricated electronic thermometer based on LM 35 D
temperature transducer, Performed heat capacity and heat of neutralization experiment
using this instrument and their own made calorimeter. They compared the results with the
theoretical data. The students made pH metric titration curves for HCl – NaOH using QBASIC
and C++ languages. The students were thrilled to carry all the three activities because they
have never seen electronic components, never used computer for the learning of languages
for the plots.
OUTCOME:
13 Electronic Thermometers in Physics, Heat Capacity and Heat of neutralization in
Chemistry Investigatory projects, pH metric titration curve in QBASIC and C++ in
Computer Science Investigatory Projects
Students doing work
Students testing the fabricated instruments
Students receiving certificates as well as the fabricated instrument
(Participants – Group Wise)
Group –I
Group – II
Group – III
Group – IV
Group – V
Group – VI
Group – VII
Group – VIII
Group – IX
Group – X
Group – XI
Ishan and Himanshu Taneja
Tanya Jain and Neha Chaurasia
Khushboo Sethi and Arushi Gupta
Surbhi Samra and S. Lakshmi
Mayank Sharma and Gopal Chitkara
Deepansha Gaur and Pratibha Gupta
Aradhna Sharma and Akansha Malhotra
Suraj Regmi and Neha Singh
Ishika Jain and Saumya Sundriyal
Rahul Kapoor and Aditya Sharma
Deepti Saluja and Naman Adhlakha
Group – XII
Group – XIII
Shivani Phansalkar and Kavya Vashisht
Tanvi Jain and Vaishali Jain
4. June 28-July 2, 2011: Workshop on Innovative Projects for Learning Science
 Twenty three undergraduate students wanted to do some work during summer holidays.
The student participants fabricated 12 PC interface electronic thermometers starting from
ab-initio. They were asked to program a chip on a computer, 2051 using assembly language.
They also made shapes of van der Waals Isotherms, pz orbital and dZ2 orbital using QBASIC as
well as C++ languages. These participants prepared a few chemicals in the Green Chemistry
method. They were also exposed to animation designing in a Flash after developing some
tools.
OUTCOME:
12 PC Interface Electronic Thermometers, Programming of a chip, 2051, pz and dz2
orbital’s shape, Green Chemistry experiments, animation in Flash
UG Students fabricating Electronic Thermometer
5. July 16 20, 2011:
Workshop on Innovative Projects for Learning Science
 Another Twenty three undergraduate students wish to do some work during summer
holidays. The student participants fabricated 12 PC interface electronic thermometers
starting from ab-initio. They were asked to program a chip on a computer, 2051 using
assembly language. They also made shapes of van der Waals Isotherms, pz orbital and dZ2
orbital using QBASIC as well as C++ languages. These participants prepared some chemical in
the Green Chemistry method. They were also exposed to animation designing in a Flash
after developing some tools. This group also initiated some work in 2D Motion animation
designing.
OUTCOME:
12 PC Interface Electronic Thermometers, Programming of a chip, 2051, pz and dz2
orbital’s shape, Green Chemistry experiments, animation in Flash as well as in 2D
Motion
S.NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
ROLL NO.
164
298
313
173
581
826
132
513
454
131
86
486
22
241
308
332
25
564
752
399
201
253
142
418
420
249
117
133
85
480
150
153
NAME
Anshika Goel
Ravit Kumar
Deepika Sardana
Swati Girdhar
Manish Varyani
Pargat Singh
Yougant Afran
Ranu Kaushik
Payal Bose
Mahima Makkar
Srishti Goswami
Meghna Gogna
Anuradha Nandy
Uddyalok Bangabooh
Rohit Khurana
Taranpreet Kaur
Chirag Sharma
Natasha Navet
Ankita Mann
Kriti Seth
Priyanka Jain
Meenakshi Pahwa
Deepshikha Arora
Vandana Arora
Mohit Harit
Varun Kant
Awantika Chadha
Swarnima Rawat
Tarun Aneja
Sahil Malhotra
Rinky Sharma
Divya Dubey
Varsha Jain
CLASS
Chem – II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem - II
A.P.S. - II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem - II
Chem – II
Chem - II
B.Sc (H) - Chem
B.Sc (H) - Chem
B.Sc (H) - Chem
B.Sc (H) - Chem
6. September 1-3, 2011: Workshop on Innovative Projects for Learning Science
 A number of PGTs of Physics and Chemistry fabricated 9 instruments, 3 each of Emf, thermo
and Conducto meters during three day workshop. They tested these PC interface models
with reference to chemistry experiments for Nernst Equation verification, Hess Law
verification and HCl- NaOH conductometric titration. They found the results comparable
with the existing corresponding commercial instruments. They are planning to introduce
these experiments in the student’s regular curriculum which are already mentioned in their
CBSE syllabus.
OUTCOME:
9 PC Interface Emf meter, Electronic Thermometers and Conductometers, Programming
of a chip, 2051, van der Waals Isotherms, multimedia demonstration in Flash
List of Participants
S.NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
NAME
Aprajita
N K Giri
Y Singh
G. Haridas
Mahesh Kumar
Bhagwan Singh
Azizullah
8
C. Srinivas
9
10
11
H.O. Gupta
Upasna Kehar
Dr. CK Seth
7. October 21, 2011:
SCHOOL NAME
KV 3 Delhi Cantt
KV Murad Nagar
KV M.M. Sadiq Nagar
SR DAV P.S. Dayanand Vihar
SGTB College, Delhi-110007
SR DAV P.S. Dayanand Vihar
Dadoy Dales Sr. Sec. School,
East of Kailash
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sector4,R.K. Puram
NCERT
SR DAV P.S. Dayanand Vihar
Hindu College, Delhi University
Lecture cum demonstration for INSPIRE students/teachers
The following experiments to around 200 students in the lecture cum demonstration held on
October 21, 2011 at Amity University Lukhnow:





Egg in a bottle
Non burning Towel
KMnO4 - Glycerin Reaction
B Z Reaction
Briggs Rauscher Reaction
In fact I called some of the students on the dais to perform these experiments. The response is
very good and in fact every student/teacher/scientist was willing to do these demonstrations.
OUTCOME: 5 Chemistry/physics experiments
Egg in a bottle Demonstration
KMnO4-Glycerin Demonstration
Non Burning Towel Demonstration
8. October 29, 2011:
Lecture cum demonstration for ISCA for the society
The following experiments to around 50 scientist/general persons in the lecture cum
demonstration held on October 29, 2011 at India International Centre, Delhi:





Egg in a bottle
Non burning Towel
KMnO4 - Glycerin Reaction
B Z Reaction
Briggs Rauscher Reaction
In fact I called some of them on the dais to perform these experiments. The response is very
good and in fact every one was willing to do these demonstrations.
OUTCOME: 5 Chemistry/physics experiments
9. November 1-3, 2011: Workshop on Innovative Projects for Learning Science

A number of PGTs of Physics and Chemistry fabricated 8 thermometers during three day
workshop. They tested these instruments with reference to chemistry experiments for heat
capacity/ heat of neutralization determination. They found the results comparable with the
existing corresponding commercial instrument. The teacher participants also made van der
Waals isotherms at different temperatures using QBASIC and C++ language. They also made
software for the pz – orbital as well as dz2-orbital curves using both the programming
languages.
OUTCOME: 8 Electronic Thermometers, heat capacity and heat of neutralization
experiment, van der Waals isotherms, pz and dz2 orbital’s shape.
Teacher participants fabricating Electronic Thermometer
Teachers making software in C++ Language
10. November 8, 2011:
Spectrum 2011- A Science Exhibition
A number of live projects were demonstrated by the students of various classes in this Spectrum
science exhibition. It was held at DPS Indira Puram, Gaziabad and the students were well
appreciated with different awards and prizes.
11. November 18, 2011: Vaigyanika-2011
4508 students took part in this off line science quiz (Vaigyanika, Sanskrit word for science quiz)
from 40 schools of 10 different states in India. The students from class VI to X were given with
forty science questions, 10 each in physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology. The students of
class XI and XII standard were given 40 questions each in all the four different discipline. The
results of OMR sheet is in progress. The certificates will be given to them on January 16-17, 2012
during a national symposium cum science colloquium to be organized in association with HC,
SEC and ISCA.
12. November 19, 2011: Lecture cum demonstration for INSPIRE students/teachers , Science
Demonstration Amity Jaipur
The following experiments to around 200 students in the lecture cum demonstration held on
November 19, 2011 at Amity University Jaipur:





Egg in a bottle
Non burning Towel
KMnO4 - Glycerin Reaction
B Z Reaction
Briggs Rauscher Reaction
In fact I called some of the students on the dais to perform these experiments. The response is
very good and in fact every student/teacher/scientist was willing to do these demonstrations.
OUTCOME: 5 Chemistry/physics experiments
The best tribute to Madam Curie will be to continue hands on activities for learning science at all the
levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. The SEC, HC, VVK and ISCA are committed to this cause of
learning science through hands on activities at least in India to begin with. In fact the mentioned
institutions are planning to initiate a new activity- Hands on Competition during a valedictory function of
IYC-2011 organised on January 16-17, 2012. In this we are exploring around 15 projects which the
participants have to carry in 40 minutes duration and few good projects will be accordingly awarded. We
are also distributing certificates duly signed by the chairman IUPAC-CCE to all those who participated in
the workshops/competitions, etc reported above. Thanks to Professor Ram S Lamba and Professor Peter
Mahafy for providing us this opportunity.