“The
process of scientific discovery, is in effect, a continual flight from
wonder.”-Albert Einstein
Curiosity and observation ,leads to
discoveries of phenomenon around us and how these discoveries are expressed is
what we are learning in our current science unit in MYP called the –SCIENTIFIC
METHOD.
To take us through this wonderful journey of how scientists express
themselves, we MYP Year 1 students had the privilege to interact with a
parent-scientist Ms. Ganga Amritesh, who worked on discovering molecular drugs
against protozoan parasites, a project named- drugs for bugs, she has published
research papers in international journals and whose work was recognized by the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations
She started off with the basics, we
understood that we cannot progress without knowing the main body. We were also
asked what science is. So that led to knowing the difference between meaning
and definition. She led us to a discussion on the simple question with a tricky
answer ‘what is force? types of force and variables. She kept us on the edge of
our seats with an experiment on the speed of oscillations of a pendulum. In
this experiment, a pendulum was used to see whether the speed of oscillation
changed when we change the release angle of the bob. She explained to us how
the graph is our data for interpretation and we must look for correlations or
trends in the graph.
In the end we learnt to design an experiment
by asking the right research question, creating a hypothesis, decide the
experimental parameters, detailing a protocol for the experiment, how to
conduct the experiment, record observation, plot data, interpret data and draw
conclusions.
Even though we missed a quarter of our lunch,
we are really thankfully for this opportunity to get to know more about the
workings of the scientist from this amazing scientist who took time out of her
busy schedule, to help us enhance our learnings.
