Presented ByMrs. Moumita Ghosh

Basirhat Mahabodhi College of EducationWest Bengal State University

Subject: Physical ScienceSession: 2012-2013

Reg. No.: 21212141214000006Exam. Roll No.: 122120000991

There is a Chinese proverb that “I read, I forget it. I see, I remember it. But when I do things, I understand”. The philosophy underlying the learning of science through fun is directed towards a greater participation of children in active learning experiences in the classroom and outside.

Discovery, purposeful activity and environment are the three basic elements of new teaching method. Activity should be developed utilizing local resources in such a way that children can perform the experiment themselves.

Teaching aids are those tools which should use classroom teachers, facilitators, or tutors to help their students learn quickly and thoroughly. The teaching aids may be as simple as a chalkboard or as complex as a computer program.

Teaching aids provide a stimulus for exploration and thinking. Appropriate learning materials (teaching aids) help children to develop their innate abilities. For teaching Physical Science, proper instruments and a laboratory filled with necessary apparatus is required. But it should be kept in mind that teaching science can be done without the help of costly instruments. For this reason improvised apparatus should be given the primary importance.

Low cost no cost materials are the teaching aids which require no cost or available cheaply, and developed by locally available resources and Low cost no cost expedite the process of learning in the classroom.

Low cost refers to a systematic way of constructing a piece of apparatus or designing an experiment from locally available materials.

(i) Reduces spent of money to purchase equipments in the educational institutions.(ii) Ensures the realization of lesson objectives.(iii) Improvising these type of aids create scientific attitude among students. (iv) Helps in solving the problem of lack of equipments in the institutions.(v) Gives room for a teacher to demonstrate his creative skills.(vi) Gives room for the use of cheap local materials as alternatives to the expensive foreign ones.(vii) Encourages students towards the development of creative abilities.(viii) Strengthen enquiry, discovery and investigative method in sciences. (ix) Enables teacher to think of cheaper, better and faster methods of making teaching learning process easier for students.(x) These aids help the students to pay respect towards their schools

and also others.

There are a large number of tools for constructing improvised apparatus in class room learning of physical science. Some of them are as follows-

(i) Bicycle spokes, (ii) used hack-shaw blades, (iii)

toothpaste caps, (iv) candles, (v) match sticks,(vi) white cardboards,(vii) water colours, (viii) brushes, (ix) threads, (x) fused electric bulbs, (xi) balloons, (xii) coconut shell, (xiii) carbon rods from a used dry cell or battery, (xiv) transparent papers and colours, (xv) charts and models, (xvi) toys, (xvii) glass bottle, (xviii) wooden pieces, (xix) glass tube, (xx) balls, (xxi) pictures, (xxii) tapes, (xxiii) wood chisel, (xxiv) wood rasp file, (xxv) flat and round smoothing file, (xxvi) ranges and plus, (xxvii) hammers and screwdrivers, (xxviii) soldering iron and multimeter etc.

1. Tripod Stand

Take a piece of used powders cylindrical pot. Then cut it at a length of 6 inches. Cut one end in such a shape of tripod. We can put any substance for experimentation on the opposite side of the tripod. Then it can be used as a tripod stand.

2. Spirit lamp

Take an empty ink bottle.

Make a hole on the cap of the bottle and insert a piece of cloth or cotton. Pour spirit in the bottle and close the cap. Then light the outer end of the cloth or cotton. It will act like a spirit lamp.

3. Voltameter3. Voltameter

Take a plastic glass, brass wires and two test tubes. Make Take a plastic glass, brass wires and two test tubes. Make two small holes at the bottom of the glass. Insert two two small holes at the bottom of the glass. Insert two wires through these two holes. Then close the holes with wires through these two holes. Then close the holes with wax so that no liquid passes out through the glass. Then wax so that no liquid passes out through the glass. Then place the two test tubes in the glass so that the wires place the two test tubes in the glass so that the wires remain inside the test tubes. Connect the outer end of the remain inside the test tubes. Connect the outer end of the wires to a battery. It will act as cathode and anode. This wires to a battery. It will act as cathode and anode. This model will act as a Voltameter. With this we can do model will act as a Voltameter. With this we can do electrolysis of NaCl solution, CuS0electrolysis of NaCl solution, CuS044 solution etc. solution etc.

4. Spring Balance

Fix a nail on the top of a wooden frame. Then hang a spring from there. Attach a scale by the side of the spring. Fix a pointer on the spring. Then hang a weight on the spring to take the measurement. The pointer will show the reading on the scale. This reading will be considered as the weight of the thing hanged.

5. Telescope

Take two cardboard pipes of different width so that one can be inserted through the other. Fix a lense at one end of each pipe. The focal length of the lense attached with the wider pipe must be greater than the other. Insert the narrow pipe, the side having the lense, into the wider one. The wider pipe acts as the objective and the other one acts as an eyepiece. In this way a telescope can be made.

6. Pinhole Camera

Take a box made of hard paper. A glass is attached in one inner side of the box. All the inner sides are black by ink. There is a pin hole in the opposite outer side of the glass attached side of the box. Put a burning candle in front of the hole. The reverse image of the candle should be seen in the glass plate attached inside the box. It can be used as a pin hole camera.

Sometimes it is observed that the making price of low cost and no cost teaching aids are higher than those available in the market.

The longibity of low cost and no cost teaching aids is short.

In most of the cases the low cost and no cost teaching aids does not show exact or accurate result.

In most of the school there is lack of experienced teacher for making low cost and no cost teaching aids.

The teacher should select such type of low cost and no cost aids which can activate the power of thinking and curiosity of the students.

In the context of the subject matter of the curriculum the teacher has to adjust the significance and educational value of the aids.

The cost effectiveness of the teaching aids should be considered.

Teaching aids should be prepared with simple material. It should be improvised and prepared easily with some inexpensive and waste materials available in the locality.

The teacher should use the teaching aids considering the class room situations wisely and comprehensively.

The selection of teaching aids for the second time should be based on their utility and effectiveness.

Out of total schools in our country about 80% schools are situated in the villages. The rural schools suffer badly for want of sufficient fund to buy costly teaching aids of Physical Science. Furthermore grants from Government for this purpose are not adequate. Contingent money given to schools is utilized to buy basic requirements like chalks, duster, dusting, sweeping etc.

For Madhyamik standard students Teaching Aids are very essential to provide interest in Physical Science. So low cost and no cost teaching aids are very helpful and this is becoming popular day by day.

To expand the usage of Low Cost and No Cost teaching Aids more awareness among teachers and students is needed. To motivate the students to make Low Cost and No Cost teaching Aids the help of media, workshops, seminars etc. are very essential. In this way the students will develop interest in experimenting different objects.

[1] Owolabi, T., (2004), A diagnosis of students difficulties in physics, Educational Perspectives, 7: 15-20.

[2] Ogunleye, A.O., (2000), Towards the optimal utilization and management of resources for the effective teaching and learning of physics in schools, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria, (STAN'00), University of Lagos, Nigeria, pp: 215-220.

[3] Arora Sangeeta, Innovative Teaching Strategies in Physics by Using Integrated Use of Both Technological Aids and Low Cost Teaching Aids

[4] Javed Iqbal Anjum, Presentation on Developing Low Cost No Cost Materials, Pdt, Pdcn for Edip Project

Thank you