Jun 02 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Developing geniuses
Aaditi Isaac/TNN
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Learning maths just became fun. Delhi University is reaching out to school students by promoting creative thinking, learning and action through maths education.“For the first time DU is doing something like this. The aim is to create a network between academic and infrastructural resources and reach out to the community and identify talented students in mathematics and science at a young age and promote engagement in research and science and mathematics,“ says Jyoti Sharma, assistant professor, faculty on deputation, Cluster Innovation Centre.
Little systematic research has been done in India to plan the identification processes and needs of gifted children. A national-level pilot project was initiated by the office of principal scientific advisor to the government of India in this direction in 2010 to identify children with high abilities in mathematics and science. The project was spread across three different locations, Delhi, Bangalore and rural Karnataka, across different age groups to accommodate the diversity at various levels such as regional, socio-cultural, economi cal and age level.
The first phase saw the partic pation of 37 schools, which comprised government, public, private, Kendriya Vidyalayas and minority schools and saw the participation of students from class V-VIII.
“We worked through a detailed identification process, which involved classroom observation, details from children about their interest, response in maths and science, project work, etc. An ability test was also set up to judge the level of students. We took the top 26 children for mentoring,“ adds Sharma.
The second phase will begin in June. “We are holding additional classes for the new batch of 170 students from MCD and NDMC schools on Saturdays, where students learn about different concept through a handson approach at CIC. We do not teach the school or college curriculum. We allow them to engage with ideas through experiments so that they develop the skill to think independently.“
The idea is to create a thinktank for the future and allow students to explore and empower themselves by doing what they love to do in maths and science.
“We would like to scale this project by identifying more students from other parts of India,“ she sums up.
Little systematic research has been done in India to plan the identification processes and needs of gifted children. A national-level pilot project was initiated by the office of principal scientific advisor to the government of India in this direction in 2010 to identify children with high abilities in mathematics and science. The project was spread across three different locations, Delhi, Bangalore and rural Karnataka, across different age groups to accommodate the diversity at various levels such as regional, socio-cultural, economi cal and age level.
The first phase saw the partic pation of 37 schools, which comprised government, public, private, Kendriya Vidyalayas and minority schools and saw the participation of students from class V-VIII.
“We worked through a detailed identification process, which involved classroom observation, details from children about their interest, response in maths and science, project work, etc. An ability test was also set up to judge the level of students. We took the top 26 children for mentoring,“ adds Sharma.
The second phase will begin in June. “We are holding additional classes for the new batch of 170 students from MCD and NDMC schools on Saturdays, where students learn about different concept through a handson approach at CIC. We do not teach the school or college curriculum. We allow them to engage with ideas through experiments so that they develop the skill to think independently.“
The idea is to create a thinktank for the future and allow students to explore and empower themselves by doing what they love to do in maths and science.
“We would like to scale this project by identifying more students from other parts of India,“ she sums up.
