Teaching the fun way always makes it easier to understand even difficult concepts. If the same is applied to mathematics, which is often a serious business in classrooms, learning the metric system could be a breeze.
New experiences
The students of ‘Pathabhyas Adarsha Prathamika Kannada School' had fun learning the metric system in the “Metric Mela” organised by the District Institute for Education and Training (DIET).The school is located on the campus of DIET had been converted into a ‘sante' (bazaar or a market) for this purpose.
While on one side there were students selling green vegetables yelling at the top of their voice others were selling food grains. There were a few others who were selling dolls, handicraft, small household articles, decorative items, some of which they had made on their own.
Some sold homemade food products, eatables and soft drinks.
Hands on learning
While some bargained with the vendors students, others bought it at the price quoted by the students. Of course the ‘customers' mostly parents and teachers, had to wait a little to get back the change for the money they had paid. Among others some officials including the Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction, Venkatesh Machakanur, were witness to the whole exercise, which was coordinated by Jayashri Karekar, Gurumurthy Yaragambalimath and a bunch of teachers. Thw Principal of DIET who inaugurated the “Metric Mela” said such exercises help the students understand the basics of business, various systems of measurement and calculations without actually making serious attempts to learn the same.
