Day 26 - Electroplating

Today is filled with electroplating. We're doing it for the 10th graders first, then 9th, and even 7th. Since we aren't explaining things in detail to the 7th graders, we're doing both sections (meaning about 60 kids) at once.

We call up the kids in groups so they can see the plating up close. We have them hold the coins and connect the wires as much as possible so they feel like they're actually doing something. As the one-rupee coin turns red, they laughed in astonishment. And then we switch the poles, and like magic (or chemistry), the color disappears.

Calling up 60 students in groups takes time, though, and by the time we finish, we're halfway into their break. Fortunately, the morning's rain has slowed the preparation of lunch, and break has technically not yet begun. Still, the younger kids in other classes are done, and they've begun gathering at the door.

We literally have to chase them away because they're distracting the students we're trying to teach right now.
"Go play," we tell them. "We'll come to your class too."

And still they hang around. A few days later, when we visit the 6th grade class with our copper plate and beaker of CuSO₄, one of the kids excitedly tells the others, "Adi erraga avuthadi!" (It's going to turn red!)

We ask him, how do you know that? And he replies that when we were showing this to the 7th graders, he was listening through the window. Even after we shooed them away.

You've got to give these kids props for how much they want to learn.