Week 2 - Day 8 - Material state: solid, liquid, gas/vapor

 

Education, I feel, ought to be the observation of what is around you. Then it becomes easy to share its name with children. Every time they look at that object or item, they can try to recollect the name we shared in the class. 

My students, aged 13 and below, come from a poor backgrounds. Less educated or not educated at all in Chattisgarh. But they are skilled in construction. Otherwise, they would not have been hired in the first place. Not that they went to a technical training institute to learn construction-related skills. Simple skills, under the watchful eyes of a seasoned supervisor who perhaps might have learnt the ropes in a similar fashion.

So, my students have less exposure to proper education. Nor that some of them have not gone to school. A girl, Keeleswari, says she was in Class IV. She is bright and quick grasping. Pushparaj, the eldest child in the class, is found wanting. Not complaining but a comparative study. Keeleswari's youngest sibling, Dimple is cute and smart. 

Today, I decided to teach them the various states of materials: solid, liquid, gas/vapor. Managed to get their Hindi equivalent: tos (ठोस), taral (तरल), and bhap (भाप). 

For solid, showed them a brick.  For liquid, showed water in the bottle. For gas/vapor, I could not show but tell them the smell/aroma they sense when mothers light up the gas stove for cooking. 

Told them, they can touch and see solid and liquid, but not vapor/gas. 

Then we discussed the transformation of liquid into solid; told them about water turning into ice (बर्फ). Daily, they see my transparent water bottle containing chilled water and ice. They were able to relate quickly. One child replied that Fridge does that job of transforming liquid into solid. Good.

When the same ice is kept outside the fridge or in an open space due to atmospheric heat, it melts (पिघलना): from a solid into a liquid form.

butter (मक्खन) is solid. when kept over the fire, it melts and turns into ghee.