The Science Lab!

After really enjoying teaching the children at Nav Jeevan English two years ago, I was determined to come back and help the school more in any way that I could. When Anita told me that Nav Jeevan had a science lab that wasn't being used, doing practical work with the children seemed like the perfect idea.

But of course, with every major plan, come a few obstacles along the way. It wasn’t until I actually arrived at Nav Jeevan did I learn the true reason that the lab wasn’t being used; put simply, it couldn’t be. While there was an array of beautiful equipment, it was all stashed away in cupboards; some in unopened boxes, some in rusting away, some amongst old pieces of trash. It was clear that some organization work was first on the agenda.

Firstly, I emptied out all of the cupboards and made an inventory of all the equipment in the lab, including the names of each item and their quantities. It turned out that the lab even contains some fractional columns - equipment that’s usually used for university level chemistry! After days of sorting, washing up (and occasionally being jumped at by a cockroach from the cupboard), all of the equipment was organized into groups. Every science (physics, biology, chemistry) had its own respective section in the lab and every piece of equipment was given a set location/tray that was labelled. Once some posters 

and décor was added to the walls, the lab would be ready to use!

Since many of these children had never entered a laboratory before, it was essential to stage an introductory ‘safety week’. During this, the children learnt the lab rules, the dos and donts, and were briefly introduced to the equipment.

Our first demonstration got under way with the seventh English medium class, where we illustrated the nature of shadows formed by objects. Meanwhile the ninth standard has been busy in the chemistry department as they've done an experiment to determine the boiling point of water, as well as made various compounds and mixtures. 

Pritika Mehra, 17, Dubai