The word park is associated with the word play in other words a park is place where children get to play with a lot of equipments as they breathe the fresh air and relax with the nature. Science is a subject that looks very complicated until one understands that it’s nothing but us and our surroundings. To sow the seeds of curiosity and interest we in our school have developed a science park that encompasses the equipments that allow the children to play and understand the principle behind their working and also their application in their real life. Science Park is a cluster of open-air science gadgets for play way learning of science. Science Park is an innovative concept of teaching Science in an informal way. The basic concept of Science Park is to enhance the tendency of the children to play more than to read. At Advaith School, we let children play Science in a park!
The school’s science park encompasses aesthetically designed and ruggedly fabricated science gadgets installed permanently to benefit every student by covering many topics in science. To name a few mechanics, sound, light, meteorology, heat etc., apart from pure science, mathematics, applied science, geography is also covered in these interactive exhibits.
Advaith is keen to provide students an opportunity to explore and learn the laws of nature under the open skies. The ambience of the park is special, considering the Gurukula system of learning – a constant dialogue between the teacher and the taught right in the arms of the Mother Nature. The park is an effective tool in the hands of our Science teachers who will walk that extra mile beyond the classroom and make learning more meaningful and enjoyable. Advaith school in Hosur is the only school with Science Park.
This creates an exciting environment for students to develop a scientific attitude driven by curiosity. The park houses a lot of equipments like Barton’s Pendulum Equipment, Newton’s color disk, Gear Train Equipment, DNA Model Equipment, Principle of Lever Equipment, Revolving Periscope Equipment that look like play items but have a scientific principle underlying. The principles are unraveled by our facilitating experts -our teachers and the students learn them with ease.
Our students have created their own science equipments by scavenging for usable pipes and sheets, they worked with their teachers by putting together all the materials and designed gadgets across the fields like genetics, mechanics, sound and light – through periodic tables, a DNA double helix, pulleys, musical pipes, optical illusions, etc. this gave them a very good learning experience as they assembled different types of materials in to one. They understood the nature of the materials used and the various ways to use them in their day to day life. They became engineers to design the products with a good amount of cooperation. While designing their own equipments were able to explain the process step wise. They were able to voice out their difficulties and seek help from peer group and the faculty members.
The park is used by student’s grades across and the beauty lies where the interpretation of the concept is done by each age group in their different scientific way. Students do a lot of thinking before about speak about the equipment, this improves their linguistic skill. Their fine and gross motor skills are greatly used when the try to operate various sensitive parts of the equipments. Proper development of the fine and gross motor skills stands very important for focus and also enhances their power of concentration; they learn to handle with care!
The science park stimulates and manages the flow of knowledge and technology amongst our students and teachers. It also facilitates the children to mingle with science in play way manner. Most educationalists, scientists and psychiatrists insist on the play way method of teaching. Every class gets an opportunity to explore the science park in the scheduled time they are allowed to use the equipments and manipulate them as per instructions and carefully record their observations in their notebooks and have a discussion about the equipment for the exchange of knowledge. The Science Park is a special place. It was designed from the ground up for the purpose of teaching science. Each piece of equipment reflects a scientific concept. Signs around the playground tell kids what to look for: gears, levers, pulleys, pendulums, and more. The learning that happens in a science park is far beyond than the regular classroom teaching. Students experience the equipment hands on and keep their minds on to absorb the knowledge. This knowledge is permanent and allows them to understand the connections between on topic to other as the hierarchy increases.