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Showing posts from June, 2017

Common prevailing myths in education that needs to be busted

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A student is not scoring well, the main reason given: He/She has the less innate ability . He/She was not working hard . Let's bust the second myth first. My question to schools, teachers, and parents is after spending about 6-7 hours in schools, or 24 hrs in residential schools and colleges, how can you really blame children for not working hard. Why do schools expect children to study all by themselves? Why they have to do homework? The problem is not about working hard, it's about not following effective study strategies. Not providing them to do enough retrieval practice. The implementing of the effective study strategies is a very complicated process and often contextual, so much of attributes involved, from content, curriculum to test questions. But the good thing is so much of research already available that will guide teachers to help students in learning. http://www.learningscientists.org/ Now the first myth: She lacks the innate ability. Fact: All orga...

Brainstorming ideas on Saturdays in schools

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You can change and improve things if you are able to imagine it. You can't make it, if you can't imagine it. It's naive to think that everything will happen serendipitously or just knowing things is enough. Our schools incentivise student just for knowing things in form of marks without giving considerations to creativity . Attitude toward inventiveness is almost negligible in our schools. You can't make it, if you can't imagine it. Economic growth matters. Wealth brings us flush toilets, antibiotics, higher education, the ability to choose the career we want, fun vacations, and of course, a greater ability to protect our families against catastrophes. If wealth is so important, what makes a country rich? The most proximate cause is that wealthy countries have lots of physical and human capital per worker and they produce things in a relatively efficient manner, using latest technological knowledge. But why do so some countries have more physical and hum...

Comparative analysis of openstax biology and ncert biology

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The sequence of chapters: Openstax biology: In openstax biology, chapters are arranged based on increasing biological complexity . The second chapter is about atoms, molecules, water, and carbons. It gives applied techniques about how biology is being done, for example, carbon dating, molecular interactions that take place in lifeforms and why, how it takes place, its describes all the basics at the atomic and molecular level, and also talks about environmental conditions of life forms such as pH. At the end of the chapter, it says about Carbon, and why it's important for life. Next chapter is about Biological Macromolecules (increasing complexity from atoms to long polymers), then cell structure and other chapters about functioning. Evolution is taught before the five kingdom classification. Why? Because classification is completely phylogenetically linked. You have to understand evolution, in order to understand classification. Classification is also written with linking ev...

Why are our books filled with unnecessary short cut formulas?

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A short cut formula like these add nothing to the understanding of concepts, also overloads children with pointless burden as they have to memorize by parroting. How its need to be solved? P° Solvent = 0.850 bar Mass of solute = 0.5g Mass of solvent = 39g Molar mass of benzene = 78g/mol P Solution = 0.845 bar Molar mass of solute (g/mol) = ? P Solution = χ Solvent P° Solvent χ Solvent = n Solvent / (n Solvent + n Solute ) Solvent: g -----> mol Conversion factor = 1 mol/ 78 g 39g * 1 mol/78 g = 39/78 mol No. of moles of solvent = 39/78 mol Solute: g -----> mole Conversion factor = 1 mol/x g 0.5g * 1 mol/x g = 0.5/x mol No. of moles of solute = 0.5/x mol Putting these values in the equation P Solution = χ Solvent P° Solvent we get following equation (((39/78)/(39/78 + 0.5/x))*0.850) -0.845 = 0 Solving it through python programming: Ans: [169.000000000000] Also why overload students with so much of large calculations (in...