i wonder
4 Booklets and 1 Story published and hope to do more
LUCA, Version 4.01
On a trip to natural museum with his mother, Mittu is upset by his mother's insistence that all the life exhibits are fossils of his distant cousins. Join Mittu as he sets out to check the truth of this statement and begins his journey of understanding 'Evolution'.
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Mittu nodded excitedly and stood with his pen poised over his notepad. They were standing right in front of a working model of his favourite animal, the Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Natural History Museum! He waited for mom to begin.
Discovering the
HELICAL STAIRCASE
Mittu came down from the attic bursting with curiosity. His project on 'how grandparents spend their holidays without gadgets' was about to take off. Mittu had just found a sketch of a mysterious black and white photograph of what looked like an X in Grandpa's scrapbook, and could not wait to ask Grandpa about it.
Grandpa was out in the garden, reading his newspaper. Mittu rushed to Grandpa, showed him the 'X' and said, "Let's start here." Grandpa looked at the photograph gravely. "This is a copy of famous Photograph 51. The most crucial evidence in the discovery of the molecule of life - deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA."
MONA or MONU
Mittu was still asleep when Mom sneaked into his room, placed his gift on the study table, and started singing “Happy birthday to you!” Mittu sat up in bed with a grin, and rubbed his eyes. “Thank you!” he muttered joyously. After a moment, Mittu’s eyes opened wide. “Oh! A clownfish! How awesome. I love it. Thank you!”
He hopped off the bed, and hugged her. “Umm...Mom, I know your gifts are always unique — what is special about this clownfish?”
I CHOOSE
Mittu ripped open his favourite pack of potato chips, turned on the television, and sat down to work on his school project. He browsed the internet for a while, penned down an idea, but dissatisfied, crumpled the paper, and began again.
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Tatha grumbled.
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Mittu took no notice and continued his work. In the next thirty minutes, he had eaten two packets of chips, crumpled 15 sheets of paper, and flipped three channels on the television set. Then he used Mom’s mobile to call up a friend.
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This time Tatha grumbled quite audibly. “What is wrong, Mittu?”
Verbs Explained
The kids stood absolutely still with their lemons and spoons. As soon as the whistle blew, they started racing ahead. A few lemons fell off the spoons. These were met by groans of disappointment from the participants and the crowd alike.
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Mittu was nearing the finish line when Tatha cheered “Go on, Mittu.” Mittu turned to look at Tatha, and PLOP! His lemon rolled off his spoon. Mittu was out.
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On the way home, Tatha and Mittu walked for a while in silence. “I shouldn’t have called out,” said Tatha apologetically.
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“I shouldn’t have looked.” Mittu laughed light-heartedly.
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“Ah! Newton’s laws.” sighed Tatha.
About i wonder
i wonder is a science magazine for (middle and high) school teachers. It is promoted by Azim Premji Foundation. It's aim is to feature writings that engage teachers as well as parents, researchers and other interested adults in a gentle, and hopefully reflective, dialogue about the many dimensions of teaching and learning of science in class and outside it. i wonder is also a great read for students and science enthusiasts.
Author Comments
It was an immense pleasure to write for i wonder, which provided me my first official Science communication platform. It was a stimulating experience to simplify science for children and the first story (Luca, Version 4.01) coming out as a booklet and the issue carrying the story being launched at YIM, Trivandrum, was an icing on the cake.
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Note: The illustrations used in the website are from the stories, which are drawn by artists from i wonder.
