Teacher finds local resources for science practicals, to be

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Taking science practical classes in rural schools of Odisha's Koraput district, which was difficult due to absence of required equipment, would not have been easy if Om Prakash Mishra had not penned the book titled 'Experimento'.

The science practical handbook by Mishra gives a pictorial presentation on how various science experiments can be done with locally available resources.

Within four years of its publication, the book has become a favourite among the science teachers of rural areas.

The 48-year-old teacher is all set to receive the National Award for Teachers-2017 in New Delhi on September 5.

He is the only teacher from Odisha among the 45 teachers selected for the national award given by the Ministry of Human Resources Development this year.

"The national award will act as an inspiration for me to explore new methods and techniques to simplify education for high school students," he said.

Mishra, who teaches science and mathematics, is also the in-charge headmaster of Government High School of Jeypore.

Mishra, who was honoured with the state governments best teacher award last year, said he had begun his teaching career from remote Mathapada high school under Boipariguda block in the district in 1998.

During his stint at Mathapada, he realised that practical classes were difficult to be conducted in rural areas as science equipment were not easily available.

So he planned to write a science practical handbook to help teachers of rural areas and wrote 'Experimento' in 2015.

This apart, to help the students in clearing the national means-cum-merit scholarship (NMMS) test, which is conducted for Class 8 students, he prepared a 40-day practice book 'Kinetics'.

"As tribal students of our district were unaware of logical reasoning and modular reasoning which figure in the question paper of NMMS, they used to fail in clearing the examination. Hence, the Kinetics was prepared and it helped the students immensely and the success ratio of the district improved," said Mishra.

Mishra, has also co-authored two books titled 'Transit' and 'Transit-2' a bridge course in mathematics for students of Classes 7, 8 and 9.

"It was seen that most of the students in high school even lack basic knowledge in mathematics. Hence, to provide them the basic knowledge before learning the regular syllabus, the two books have been prepared," he said.