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Truth behind science models
LOOKING FOR a model to exhibit at the school's science exhibition? There is no need to toil and go through trials and errors before making one. It is as easy as buying across the counter.
LOOKING FOR a model to exhibit at the school's science exhibition? There is no need to toil and go through trials and errors before making one. It is as easy as buying across the counter.
The model of an AC generator is available for as little as Rs 75 while a model of a human heart, with a circuit depicting blood circulation, is available for Rs 700.
The electric repair shops in and around Shahganj here seem to be thriving because of the increasing demand for these science models from school and college students.
The shops also sell project reports and rattle off the names of several well-known schools from where students flock to them.
If they are to be believed, some science teachers too are involved in the deal, charging commission from the shops for sending the students to them.It spares both teachers and students the effort, impresses visitors and enables the shopkeepers and teachers to make a tidy pile.
Science exhibitions are popular in schools and both proud parents and scientists have occasionally been thrilled at some of the professional models ‘prepared’ by the school students. But clearly the future of science is not safe if the shopkeepers are to be believed.
Some of them find the business so lucrative that they have prepared catalogues and listed the science projects being sold by them and the rates charged by them. A few of them even visit schools to procure orders.
One such list has 54 items like AC generator dynamo, automatic emergency light, automatic solar lamp, water level alarm, washing machine model, house security system and letter box alarm etc. The cost of these models ranges from Rs 75 to 1050.
"They should look like project works of school students. We can make any model. Generally, students come with their books and we make the models accordingly," says Ahmed (name changed on request), a shopkeeper of Shahganj area.
Ahmed blames science teachers, who, he says, charge 10 per cent commission from him for sending their students to him. Students cannot make these models, claims Ahmed, without the help of teachers. "But, teachers are either too lazy, too ignorant or too keen to line their pockets," he adds.
