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What is Vigyan Pratibha?

Going beyond the Sounds and Sights of ‘Knowledge’....

For most of us, knowledge means that which is written or illustrated in books (and other written/spoken material on internet or other media). When the written knowledge is about an object or a phenomenon that we have never experienced (which a lot of what is written in books is), we often start taking the memories of the words (its written forms) and their pronunciations as signs of acquiring knowledge. For example, for many of us, NaOH means “en-ae-o-eh”, and not a solid which looks white in colour, which easily becomes wet in air, which feels slippery if you hold it in hand and can cause burning sensation if held for too long, etc. The same happens for knowledge represented in the form of diagrams or other symbolic structures. For example, by ‘atom’ what comes to our mind is a ball or a sphere, or by ‘force’ we remember an arrow drawn around an object. Those who have studied advanced chemistry know that atoms are rarely present in spherical forms, and force is more subtle than an arrow. But since these symbols/diagrams are useful in many situations, we start taking them to be true pictures of reality or absolute knowledge. Our exams also test our ability to memorize the sights and sounds of the textual or symbolic knowledge.

Here we would like to differentiate “sights and sounds of knowledge” mentioned above from our visual and auditory memories/observations of the physical world and phenomena; which (when analyzed by the human mind) lead to creation of “primary (or naive) knowledge”. Cumulative primary knowledge of one or many individuals, after rigorous analysis and validation across systems, may lead to established knowledge. It may not be possible for any individual to learn or even access all the established knowledge in a discipline, but it is very much possible for an individual to understand this process of one’s own knowledge creation (which leads us to the core of Science and Mathematics), and use it actively to enhance our learning.

For most of us (as learners) the knowledge which is useful for understanding the world around us, and which enables us to solve real life problems, is that which has become internalized.

In this knowledge, we have an acquired “feel” or a mental perception of what the object or phenomenon of study is, either through a real experience or mental visualization of how it might look, how it might sound, how it might behave or interact with other objects, etc.

The journey of transforming a standard textual/symbolic knowledge into internalized knowledge requires much more than reading, writing or memorizing the knowledge.

In the realm of science and mathematics, it first involves most importantly “observing” the world, objects, their behaviours in detail; then trying to identify patterns that can be seen across different objects/situations or consistently over time; and checking if the patterns we observe are always valid (or there are exceptions). The study of patterns can also help us to imagine/visualize/predict the behaviour of new objects/systems that we have not yet seen or experienced. Further, discussion of the observations and patterns with others can refine our understanding because of critical evaluation and addition of other ways of understanding our observations. The discussion leads to a shared understanding of the object or system among a group of people, and generates the standardized knowledge among the group; and eventually standardized knowledge of the global communities.

Thus Observation, Exploration/Analysis and Discussion form the three pillars of our efforts at Vigyan Pratibha!

In 2017, before starting the Vigyan Pratibha program, we conducted a survey in some schools with Class 8 students. As a part of the written survey, we asked students what questions come to their mind regarding Science and Mathematics. We expected conceptual clarificatory questions on various topics from their books. To an interesting surprise, we received questions like “Who made Science?” “Who created Mathematics?” “How did the great scientists think of making maths?” Further many students also wanted to know, “How can I stop my neighbours from fighting with each other? How can we clean the garbage piling near my house?” In one of the later discussions during a students’ camp, a girl of Class 9 was very perplexed about ”How scientists know for sure that the knowledge they are telling us is correct and not false?” In one of our student camps, we found a Class 8 girl showing us a very elegant explanation of “Why square root of 2 must be an irrational number”.

Contrary to our typical expectations, these instances show that high school students (at least some of them) are deeply moved by problems of their surroundings and expect science and mathematics to help them solve these. Many of them on their own engage with the questions and process of knowledge creation, and its validation. Some of them are keen observers, and can recognize complex patterns. However, many times they do not know how to translate their experiences, observations, ideas, curiosities into the standard words or language of science/mathematics; and vice versa.

Vigyan Pratibha is an effort to create spaces with the school systems, where interested students can engage deeper with the content of science and mathematics by experiencing the processes which go behind creation and change of this content. These process cannot be always experienced by only reading and writing, but would require talking with each other, asking questions from elders and community members, thinking about some questions to find your own answers and discussing with classmates, or sometimes making some things with your own hands. The opportunities of discussion and also writing your own answers (which are not going to be assessed in any examinations), allows students to enhance their vocabulary, their language expression and well as communication skills.

This process is not easy, and requires efforts by teachers, school systems, as well as the students. But it is not impossible. Learning resources created under Vigyan Pratibha can help in creating and sustaining “Science Circles”. The goal of these Science Circles should remain clear: It is not to (just) gain more knowledge, but ‘to go beyond the sounds and sights of knowledge that you have gained (memorized) and play (or sometimes wrestle) with the knowledge till it becomes your personal.’