SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE FUNCTION OF SCIENCE Science is a quest for truth. The work of science is to substitute facts for appearance and demonstrations for expressions. Science in Everyday Life Mrs. Desai was a science teacher in a school. She did not like that concepts of science should be taught in the classroom. She felt that the concepts should be learnt by experience and discovery. So she decided to teach science to her children, Saurabh and Surabhi, through small observations and experiments in everyday life. First observation: Mrs. Desai kept water in a vessel, closed it with a lid and kept it on the fire.

The water started boiling and she asked Saurabh, “What do you see on the lid?” Saurabh replied, “There are drops of water on the lid.” Then she explained to them how the water evaporates as the heat increases and appears as drops of water on the lid. Surabhi: Mummy, you kept three glasses of water and now it is less, how is it? Mrs. Desai: As the water boils, the water evaporates and so the water becomes less. [Surabhi picked up the steel spoon, which was left on the gas stove, when the water was boiling Surabhi dropped the spoon.] Surabhi: Mummy how is this spoon so hot? Mrs. Desai: If you keep a metal object on a hot surface, the heat passes on to the metal object. Mrs. Desai gave saurabh and Surabh two mugs, with two spoons of sugar in each mug. She poured the tea and milk in the mugs and asked them to stir. After stirring for some time, they drank the tea. She asked them, “How did you find your tea?” Both of them said: “The tea was sweet,” She asked them, “Is there any sugar in you mug?” They answered “No.” She asked them, “How did the sugar disappear?”

Then she explained to them that as she put milk in the tea, the color of the tea changed, when they stirred with a spoon, the sugar got dissolved and the tea became sweet, and the sugar was not seen in the mug. Suppose the stirring was not enough to dissolve the sugar, the tea will not sweet enough to drink. She told them that salt also gets dissolved in the way. Second Observation: She had kept some sprouts ready for cooking. She showed them the pulses and the sprouts. She explained to them how she got the sprouts ready. She gave them two small pots with mud and asked them to put some pulses in them and water them a little. Then she explained to them how the pulses sprout and how they grow. When she saw their interest was aroused, she brought some more plants. The children watered them regularly and watched them grow.

Surabhi was happy that she could get flowers every day. Experiment: One day, the lights went off, so Mrs. Desai lighted candles and explained the riddle, “ Th longer it stands, the shorter it grows”. After some time, when the lights came on, she told Saurabh and Surabhi to cover the burning candles with a glass. The candles stopped burning. Saurabh and Surabhi were curious to know why the candles went off, when they covered them with a glass. Then Mrs. Desai told them that the candles went off because the supply of oxygen to the flame was cut off. Observation: Mrs. Desai’s husband brought a football for Saurabh and a balloon for Surabhi. Then he pumped the ball and the ball became tight and started bouncing. He blew the balloon and it became big. Mrs. Desai explained to them how air pressure made the ball and the balloon bloat. Afterwards, the family sat to have their dinner. Mrs. Desai served them curds. Surabhi asked her mother how the milk turned tinto curds.

Mrs. Desai told her how the milk ferments when little curd is added to it and becomes curds because of certain bacteria. She explained to them how batter is prepared for idlli, dhokla and dosa by making it ready the previous right and allowing it to ferment. Once Saurabh tried to close the door of the wooden shelf, it was too tight. The hinges had rusted. Mrs. Desai put a little oil in the hinges and rubbed a little wax from the candle on the edges of the door. Then Saurabh could close it. Saurabh asked his mother how he could close the cupboard after she had put oil on the hinges and wax on the door. Mrs. Desai explained how due to weather, the moisture and dampness had made the hinges rust and the door of the shelf tight. Mrs. Desai told the children: “Our life is full of experiences and we have to enrich our life with the help of these experiences. “Mrs. Desai further added, “We can utilize our experiences to enrich our life, only if we observe experiment and understand our experiences scientifically. Analysing the event, and finding out its cause is known as Scientific Attitude.”