At first glance, truth looks uninteresting and things that are interesting may not be fulfilling the criteria of truth. However, a bit of exploration here may change the first impression.
So what is the difference between something being interesting and something being the truth?
So let us explore the concept of being 'interesting'. I would like to hasten here to make my meaning of 'interesting' clear. I am using this word in a slightly narrower context mostly a definition that may be useful in the context of education, specifically, teaching.
'Entertainment' is removed from what can be 'interesting'. What appeals to reasoning is only kept within the definition of 'interesting' and emotional excitement is kept outside
Interesting things can be classified into following categories.
1. Suspense in a narration
2. Uncertainty in the outcome (of experiments or behaviors)
3. Examples that validate or violate belief systems
4. Things that are surprising
5. Things that are secrets
These categories seem to me mutually exclusive and comprehensive (I will add more if I find some thing that doesn't fall into any of these buckets)
A teacher's aim is to keep classroom interesting for students. All the above categories can be used for this purpose.
For science teachers, an additional constraint plays a role. What you say has to be a truth! (I will not define truth). Even in other subjects, truth is important but even fiction can be used at times. (Math is a different kind of subject about which I will write another day)
Most of the truths of science are not surprising and definitely they are not the secrets (intentional secrets) that one can reveal. Unless you are telling a story of some discovery we can't utilize the suspense also. So what we are left with are experiments with uncertain outcomes and examples that can impact the belief system.
Any example that can impact the belief system can turn controversial. Enormous care has to be taken while giving such examples.
Experiments with uncertain outcomes are either dangerous or our lab procedures don't allow such uncertainty.
So how can we make our science classes interesting?
A teacher needs to understand the concepts very deeply so that he can find surprising things in basic science concepts. Connecting the complex sounding concepts to simple day-to-day happenings can be surprising to children.
Teachers need to invest in finding magical experiments whose outcomes cannot be easily predicted by students.
One needs to use the stories of scientific discoveries involving some suspense.
These I think are some techniques to make the science classes interesting.
Another day I will explore math.
If there are any additional parameters other than the ones mentioned above, please suggest.
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