I just had a taste of life moving on after the storm. This was at an elementary school science fair in Antipolo last Friday. Antipolo’s students are one of the worst hit by the storm because they all live in the east where up to now, recovery efforts are slow and difficult. I asked all of the kids and teachers and most of them lost their houses, if not most of their things in the floods. But they chose to go on with the science fair.
I am impatient when it comes to prolonged ceremonies and speeches. I can only take so much because I am so eager to move on to the main thing and in this case, the science projects themselves! That is why I grew very frustrated being asked to sit onstage with all the school officials and teachers who spent almost two hours reciting each other’s titles and positions and asking kids to clap and recite platitudes together. I was looking at the kids and they were really bored and would clap even if their heads were falling off from boredom. Maybe it is some sort of therapy for school officials to have these ceremonies to have a semblance of normalcy. But it was too much for me. I was beginning to have that feeling in my lower back which my Dad said I always talked about as a little kid when I was about to launch to do something else. At some point, I went down from the stage and sat with the kids and asked around if they were as bored as I was. They did not have to answer me as they were all playing among themselves devising their own puzzles on paper to keep themselves awake. Finally, I was told I could go see the science entries.
In the room where the science investigatory projects were installed, I gathered the kids in a circle first and tried to tell them what a science fair really means. I told them that even if we spent more time in speeches, the most important thing is their work and the curiosity with which they pursued their projects. I saw that they were very nervous so I reminded them that they should not be because they know their project more than anybody else there. I told them that they should be excited because they worked on their projects, despite their recent personal tragedies, and that means that there is something so alive in them — and that is their curiosity and sense of wonder — which will help them move on. And the kids were indeed excited about their work. The entries were not breakthroughs for the world but for these young minds, they truly were as they are discovering their world and science for themselves.
Jose Anton, 9, of Sumulong Elementary School in Antipolo, showed me that he cleaned his own teeth with his experimental toothpaste. I asked him if he really wanted to do an experiment on toothpaste and he whispered to me: “Gusto ko po talaga kuryente, pero hindi daw po safe. Toothpaste po safe (I really wanted to experiment with electricity but they said it is not safe. Toothpaste is safe).” I told him that there are ways to play with electricity that would be fun and safe. I was about to rate his study and noticed an item included among the criteria: “contribution to national goals.” I frowned. Should we really burden a nine-year-old to contribute to “national goals”?
The scientists involved in fundamental achievements in the history of science were certainly not thinking of “national goals” when they stumbled upon their own discoveries. Apart from national goals,” the science fair criteria included “economic value” and use of “indigenous materials.” These criteria are not criteria for science but more for technology. I checked again and the event was called a “science fair.” Hmm, Einstein, Newton, Faraday and the rest of the science greats would have gloriously failed this science fair.
I am not a teacher but I am an unquenchable learner. I think that in elementary school, science should not assume the formalistic approach that it becomes in high school onwards. It should not be “Problem, hypothesis, method, observation, results and recommendation.” For elementary, it should be more about pursuing curiosities about how the world works! It should be about observing a lizard staying on a spot in your ceiling for hours or why there are no more dragonflies in the creek where they used to abound. It should be about wondering if the water in your creek is drinkable or good for your pet and why. It should be wondering why your pet dog and cat behave differently even if you treat them equally. It is about testing even the simplest superstitions which kids grow up with every day — like it is bad to sleep when your hair is still wet — and really knowing if these were true!
I learned that in Japan, teachers approach grade school science through curiosity and play in every sense of the word, as they experience the world. They use the language understood by kids to connect with the world, and not yet divide it according to formal concepts. I think it is only when you shake, rattle and roll with science as a kid this way would you really be open to more formal approaches to science later. You would naturally grow into realizing the importance of precision, intellectual honesty and discipline in order to carry your curiosities further to clarity.
Of course, science fair projects should be safe. But that is not all there is to science. You can survey all the scientists in the world and I can bet that if you ask them why they do science, not one of them will say they do it because it is “safe.” On the contrary, science is “dangerous” because it risks old beliefs by requiring you to test them for yourself to see if they’re true. If it happens to address a “national goal” or have “economic value” or use “indigenous materials,” well and good, but it should not define the worth of a science project of a nine-year-old kid who wants to know for himself what electricity is really all about!
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