-Outreach at local Schools:Kumar Vanka explains Acids and Bases
In the second installment of our Science Outreach initiative, Dr. Kumar Vanka, NCL scientist, visited the Jawahar Navodaya in Shikrapur on the 13th of August, Vidya Niketan, Hutatma Balveer School on the 25th of August and the Valley View School in Kondhwa on the 28th of August, to talk to the students about the Chemistry of Acids and Bases. As before, this talk included several colourful experimental demonstrations as well as informative videos to make the science come alive, and to excite the students.
Dr. Kumar started with the history of acids and bases, from the time of the ancient Greeks, and spoke about using indicators to measure pH. The occurrence of acids in bases in daily life, including, in toothpaste, soda, vinegar, soap, fruit, etc. made it easy for the students to relate to, and appreciate the talk. The highlight of the talk was, of course, the large number of experiments, including using red cabbage juice as a natural pH indicator; the “rainbow” and “traffic signal” experiments using indicators, and several others.
At the end of the talk, we presented the students with books on science and technology, and we hope that these books will further stimulate their interest in science. Two sets of books were presented (Pioneers – People who revolutionized medical science; by Khandare and Vasudevan; Covalent Publications; and “Science Skills and Thrills” by Arvind Gupta).
A collage of a few, selected photographs from Dr. Kumar’s talks can be found on the next page. A larger set of photographs from these talks are available at:
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