School Days: Science Period

Environmental Studies of Class I and II was converted to Science from Class III. Sneha Kamath teacher taught us then. We learn the characteristics of living things and responsiveness to stimuli example of mimosa leaves. She even showed us the experiment of water and kerosene in a test tube and how kerosene being lighter forms the upper layer. Alka Kadam teacher taught in Class IV. This year the textbook lessons were exciting for the lessons were in conversation form. We even performed skit on some lessons related to hygiene. Class V had Shweta Patil teacher taking us through soil erosion and related stuff. The lectures of Class VI did start with Science taught by Hemlata Nayak teacher. We studied all the force, mass, weight, velocity, speed, gravity, scalars and vectors, Newton's law of gravitation, etc etc. Class VII had science with mix of physics, chemistry, biology taught by Sarita Pandya teacher. After the portion is complete, we had to prepare a question bank classifying from Fill in the blanks, Odd Man Out, Correlations, True or False, Answer in a Sentence and Answer in brief, Diagrams and Flowcharts, etc. So this was a kind of good exercise and repository for exam preparation. She even had viva sessions wherein each student was asked question bench wise; if answered wrong then the ruler would hit our palms. For the first time, I was blank on the question asked; which invited the ruler to hit my palm. But it was so kind of Sarita teacher for not doing so; and there were talks of favoritism to which she replied with a justified answer and all mouths were shut then. Class VIII again had Hemlata teacher and now the syllabus was wide. We had a lot on physics equation derivation and chemistry of balanced equations and biology of Plant and Animal Kingdom. We had Science Journal for the first time and the lab tour also. Class IX and Class X had Science I (taught by Hemlata teacher) and Science II (taught by Sarita teacher). Science I had complete physics and the inorganic chemistry while Science II had biology and the organic chemistry. We had the periodic tables, molecular weight, formations of acids and bases, neutralization, balanced equations, valencies and chemical bonds, atoms and protons, neutrons, electrons, reproduction, human brain and heart, etc etc. It all ended with the final board practicals. Thus the exciting eight years of learning the reasons of why things happen in our surroundings and within us are just a memory now.