LabSci went on a Jungle Trek

Sanjay Gandhi National Park at the outskirt of Mumbai city is a patch of wild existing within the island of concrete.

Late evening of last Saturday, LabSci headed out to the National Park for observing wildlife and insects. We met our extremely knowledgeable naturalist colleague at Thane, and he acted as our guide for the evening.

As we entered the National Park, we saw a specially created butterfly garden, which was full of colourful flowers. We were told that it was a pretty sight in the mornings when lots of butterflies hover about. It is, however, a bad idea to indiscriminately fabricate any habitat in the wild - In this case, the caterpillar, which is the young one of a butterfly, eats away the leaves of surrounding plants, thus causing an un-natural drop in the foliage of the place.

While we were still discussing the importance of natural order, our guide spotted some leopard tracks and scat (euphemism for poop!). By poking around the scat, he could tell us that it was a leopard cub’s doing. We got excited knowing that a leopard could be around.

We moved on and observed a lot of interesting flora, the acacia tree, its flower and seeds, the palash tree, the flame of the forest flower and a lot of semar (silk cotton) trees.

 

We also found a fully closed semar pod - it was so efficiently packed by mother nature, that on opening it, we could not believe the amount of cotton silk it could hold!

Further into the forest, we also saw scratch marks on a lot of tree trunks. This is the leopard’s way of marking its territory. A peculiar smell of urine greeted us after a while. Our guide informed us that it was the distinctive smell of a leopard but it might hide on seeing us, as leopards are known to be very shy and they scare easily.

It was getting dark as we trekked deeper into the wild, and we took out our trusty torches. We sighted a huge termite hill and the odd bit was that there were many dead insect husks clinging to the outside of the hill. It seemed as if the termites had attacked and killed the insects instantly and then slowly absorbed their nutrients (Burrp! Fun fact – termites are one of the largest producers of methane gas).

Here we learnt a very interesting fact about termite hills – that such hills are always constructed in a way so that the wall which faces west is the thickest. This is because the afternoon sun from west is always very hot and the thick wall acts as a protection against the strong heat. So next time we get lost in a forest at night, we can tell the direction just by finding a termite hill!

It soon became pitch dark and we passed an area where the trail bed was swarming with beautiful orange cotton stainer beetles. They give out a very foul smell if irritated, so we padded along swiftly; we had a hard time trying to walk on the rocks so as not to squash them.

Finally, we reached the top-most part of our trail and clicked the lovely city lights, while our backs faced the dense dark forest area.

As we moved downhill, the only natural source of light was a faint half moon. Amazingly, our guide spotted a camouflaged lizard on a tree trunk. We would not have spotted it; even while the guide was pointing at the lizard, it took us some time before we could see it.

We also managed to see a few wicked looking spiders. It was 9 PM by the time we reached the base and waited for about an hour on the Machan (observation deck) hoping to see the elusive leopard, but the big cat decided to give us a miss that day.

As we moved out of the forest later, said good nights and got back in our car, we marveled at the miracles of nature and loved the fact that our city has its own natural forest.

We will be back Mr. Leopard, and all we ask for is a little glimpse.

Childrens' Play date

Children’s play-dates too need a science edge. We got an opportunity recently to be a part of one such fun jamboree and had some ‘bomb’astic time!

The lively bunch, all aged around 7 years, made bath bombs, created fog-in-a-jar and potted some plants.

The little girls were very excited about what was in store for them. We started by telling that we will be teaching them how to make bath bombs.

As a pre prepared bath bomb went into a glass of water and it merrily fizzled and bubbled with fragrance, enthusiasm of the kids was quadrupled.

We explained the properties and uses of each of the ingredients and the science behind the chemical process, while the kids listened patiently. Finally, they got their own supplies to work on.

They absolutely loved mixing the ingredients together, smoothing and throwing out clumps. They got to mixing-in the colour and fragrance and finally put the mixture in moulds. After a few moments, out came the bath bombs!

While the fizzies were drying, we got the kids interested in our latest collection of Venus Fly traps, little insect eating plants. We showed them a short video on these plants and touched upon the basics of organic farming and getting rid of plant pests in an environment friendly way.

They immediately wanted to feed insects to the plants and went around looking for some mosquitoes. Not finding any (alas!), they devised their own version of catch-me-if-u-can. One of them became the Venus fly trap and the others were insects. They ran around for a few minutes enjoying the game.

We were amazed. The kids were simultaneously applying the concept they had just learned to an everyday game and enjoying the results. We couldn’t help but wonder why science is not taught like this in school. Learning through fun activities ensures that knowledge is gained by experience and is meaningful to kids.

Our next mission was in the garden. The whole troop marched to a small patch in the open and sat around. They enjoyed putting on their blue gardening gloves and named themselves the “blue monsters”.

We explained the basic steps of potting a plant and one-by-one the kids followed suit. They loved having their own mini-spades and digging-in. Chaos erupted when we found an earth worm clinging to the roots of one plant. Everyone wanted the worm in their pot, and we reached a deadlock - It finally got resolved when we assured them that all pots will have worms in the soil in a few days

As we were discussing how most plants are grown from seeds in the nursery, the children impulsively broke out into a lovely poem, which they had learned atschool about plant life. They recited the whole poem together and we all applauded.

We ended the session by giving the kids tips on how to care for their plants. We also gave them write ups on some science experiments which they couldperformat home themselves.

Their creations were proudly displayed on the table and the kids had a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time!

Kids experiencing "Experiential Learning" in Norway

On a recent trip to Bergen, Norway, we were strolling along the wharf, taking in the lovely sights that the city had to offer, when we spotted a bunch of very busy looking 5-6 year olds, fidgeting with some curious gadgets.

We decided to take a small detour and find out what this group of seemingly engrossed kids was up to on the frosty November morning. Luckily, we saw a couple of young teachers who were escorting the kids. We asked them about what sort of project the kids were doing.

We were told that in school, the kids had been taught about basic signaling, so they had all built their own devices over the last 2 weeks and now they were trying to send messages to each other from the device. The teachers were taking down their notes for each small group of students and evaluating them on the basis of accurateness of the signal received at the destination.

Kids experimenting with the signalling devices

We were amazed to see young kids being able to understand and apply the concepts they learnt at school. More so, that they were encouraged to independently carry out such projects and evaluated on how successful they were at implementation.

When we visited a museum of geology the next day, we passed a group of 10 year olds huddled under a dinosaur skeleton, listening intently (well, some were yawning away too) to a teacher explaining the Jurassic era in a child friendly manner. We stood and listened for a while, wishing if we too had such school outings and such experiences.

Dinosaur Museum

When in Oslo, we visited the local reptile zoo. This time we were not surprised to see children all over the place. These were 5 year olds, guided by their teachers and lovingly being shown the snakes and pigmy monkeys and spiders and what not. We too joined the group and took a few pictures of the kids and teachers, who loved posing.

Open Air Museum I

It appeared to me that the whole society was revolving around the young. The cities are dotted with open air museums and zoos. A culture of experiential learning prevails all over Scandinavia. Children are treasured. They are taught in a way which imbibes fun and discovery in learning, a feat which till recently I thought to be non existent in this world.

In the lawns of the open air museum

Research indicates that a culture of experiential learning at an early age drives a sense of confidence and resourcefulness in the child and builds a healthy curiosity of the world around them. By doing something on their own, children approach the problem from a more practical point of view and connect it to their already existing knowledge so that the newly obtained knowledge sticks.



It inspires me to build and drive initiatives for our young adults focussed on rediscovering the joy of learning!

 

Open Air Museum II