Mathematics in the Homi Bhabha Primary Science Curriculum

In primary science, we aim to introduce quantification as both a skill and an attitude. These ideas would be carried through into the middle and secondary school levels, with a gradual increase in the level of the skills demanded. Briefly, our aims are the following:

• Students should realise that their experiences of the world are quantifiable.

• They should realise that quantification makes experiences interesting. For example, counting the number of plants and animals in a given small area before and after the monsoons, enables them to see a major pattern in the living world. Next they can see smaller patterns superposed within the larger one. When students are sensitised to some patterns, a simple experience like the above has the potential to get richer with every successive year.

• Students should develop a curiosity about written numbers around them. Asking the question "What does this number mean?" can give us a lot of information about the world around us. The frequency and complexity of meaning of the observed numbers would differ according to the environment, but a start could be made anywhere. The power and potential of this approach, in an increasingly technology-intensive world, appears promising.

• Students should use skills of drawing and constructing spontaneously in learning concepts. In design and construction we provide scope for visuo-spatial ability, manual dexterity and a sense of aesthetics.

• Overall, students should develop mathematical skills for understanding and dealing with the world. These skills could get increasingly complex with years. For example, rudimentary graphs introduced in Class 3 are followed up in Class 4 with a variety of picture graphs and then more conventional graphs. Variables would be introduced in the middle school, while in the secondary school, one would deal with various symbolic representations and causal relationships expressible in algebraic form.