The 36-year-old teacher uses a variety of innovative ideas like online teaching aids, stories and catchy movie songs to impart science lessons, thus equipping students to attend competitions and win awards
PUDUKKOTTAI: Mythili conjoins science and music in an unusual way. A bunch of bright-faced students in her classroom in the government school watches her fervently as she effortlessly converts complex science lessons into catchy movie songs. It may sound more like a music class with students belting out rhythmic songs on solids, gases, liquids and complicated scientific theories.
Mythili’s biggest dream is to make her students ambitious and world-known scientists. Born in a family of teachers in Ramachandrapuram of Pudukkottai district, she lets her students to indulge and explore the world of science. An M.Phil graduate with a master’s in Chemistry and M.Ed, the 36-year-old has been working as a science teacher at Panchayat Union Middle School (PUMS) in Kammangadu village of Pudukottai since 2014.
Unlike other teachers, she uses various strategies to incite interest towards science in students. While taking lessons, she uses a variety of applications, such as ARloopa, FXguru, and other science-related materials as teaching aids.
Through her innovative ideas in teaching lessons, she equipped many students to attend various competitions. and win awards. Her students have done many projects, including a moving solar panel, a Bluetooth speaker using plastics, a heartbeat monitoring system, power generation from sea waves and a paper recycling machine. Eight students who completed these projects brought Mythili many laurels and she bagged the Inspire Awards from 2018 to 2022.
Her deep involvement with students stemmed from the realisation that the children lagged behind in studies, mostly due to their parents’ lack of attention. “I thought it would be good to interact with the students. The first lesson I imparted to my students was basic education with discipline. Instead of book reading, I chose functional teaching methods to engage them with science. After two years of hard work, they are finally cooperating with me,” she says.
Mythili has also completed several other projects, such as the skeleton model with earbuds, the digestion system with magnet and iron, and the Merge Cube, which brings the Solar System together. For this, she has received the Innovative Teacher Award in 2019 from the Tamil Nadu government. In 2021, she received three more awards – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award (Dream Teacher), Innovative Woman Achiever Award and Best Exhibitor Award.
Besides, she has coached her students and made them write the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) exam. No wonder, 14 of her students are receiving scholarships. Also, she made many students write the Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan (VVM) exam. Among them, 23 students got an opportunity to participate in the Guinness World Record event, conducted by the India International Science Festival (IISF) in December 2020 Online. “I am preparing my students to become scientists and I am delighted that I sowed the seeds for it,” says Mythili.
Even during the Covid-19 lockdown, she visited students’ houses and taught lessons to ease the students’ fear.Apart from this, she conducted an anti-plastic awareness campaign and provided cloth bags to houses and shops across the village at her own expense.
P Balamurugan, a Class 8 student in Kammangadu school, said, “Recently, I was selected for the state-level science exhibition, jointly organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Institute of Science and Technology. The only reason behind all this is Mythili teacher”.
“She initially tells us a story related to the lesson and then moves to the actual subject. She makes important points in songs which help us to remember. She shifted my interest towards science, which helped me to win many prizes, including state-level prizes in science competitions,” says Abinaya, a Class 12 student.
We have been celebrating February 28 as National Science Day, which marks the discovery of the Raman effect. Post Raman, there aren’t many notable scientists representing India, Mythili says.