A visually impaired student feeling the steam
Yesterday was the day when 5 students with visual impairment became water scientists :). In a programme called Nayantara, at Sankara Eye Hospital, we started off by discussing where we get water from. Children answered and we reached from the glass to jug to tap to ocean. We discussed how we get rain and one child said, it was God who give us rain. Okay, but how does he do that?
Our first experiment was “Water Magic”: how water moves from one glass to another. Students filled coloured (for the benefit of low-vision students) water in 2 glasses and kept an empty glass in the centre. Between the glasses were paper napkin strips which we called “ladder” for water to climb from one glass to the other. We left the set-up undisturbed and decided to observe after some time.
We then proceeded to move to water cycle experiment. Children initially observed how water vanished from the container when heated, wondered where it magically vanished, and later collected it on the underside of the plate. Felt the “rain” pouring down from the plate as ice cubes on the plate condensed the steam.
We came back to our water magic experiment and yes!! the cup which was empty inbetween 2 filled ones was now filled with some water. Magic!
We then moved onto our third experiment where we observed what dissolves in water and what doesn’t.
One interesting aspect was that one girl who was sighted joined us and I saw how much she enjoyed the whole experience! It was a time well-spent on my birthday!!
Vividha 