I am indeed delighted to interact with the students of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School. My Greetings to the Principals, teachers, parents and students.

My experience with school students

During the last five years, I have met 600,000 students in all parts of the country in the age group of students between 10 to 17 years. I make it a point to answer at least 10 to 15 questions wherever I go, in addition I have answered thousands of questions through my website. I would like to share with you some of the questions.

Question on Gravity: On 20th August 2005, I went to Bangalore and participated in the inauguration of Silver Jubilee of Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishat. The function was attended by children of 12 different Bangalore schools. After my address, some of the children asked very interesting scientific questions which I would like to share with this audience. Master Prajwal P. Acharya of 9th Standard, Prarthana School, asked me "What is the relationship between Time & Universal Gravitation?" I appreciated this beautiful question. In my answer I told him that the concept of time, space and universal gravitation is a very exciting and interesting one. "Gravity is the force of attraction between massive particles due to their mass. Weight is determined by the mass of an object and its location in a gravitational field. While a great deal is known about the properties of gravity, the ultimate cause of the gravitational force remains an open question. General relativity is the most successful theory of gravitation to date. It postulates that mass and energy curve, space-time, resulting in the phenomenon known as gravity." There are books on the subject and websites that explain these concepts extremely well. I asked the students to study further.

Question on Ocean exploration: Master Bharath Choudhari M. - 10th Standard, Athena Public School, asked me "Why we are not exploring the World (Ocean) more than the Universe (Space)?" In my answer I told him that Ocean is restricted to the surface of the earth whereas the space is unlimited. The reaching the depth of the ocean is becoming tougher than reaching large heights in the space. In spite of the difficulty in reaching the depth of the ocean, we still explore the ocean and many benefits accrue to the mankind. And there are many treasures of knowledge waiting from the depth of the ocean.

Question on Science and Philosophy: Another student from the audience asked "What is the difference between a Scientist and a Philosopher". For this question, I answered - the thinking process is common both to the philosopher and the scientist. Scientist deals with theory which has to be validated. Philosopher postulates theological, philosophical and spiritual thoughts, the validation seams to be the societal dynamics. The science ultimately results into technology and benefit the society. Philosophy, may give the way life is to be led in a dynamic society.

Question on Deep Impact on the Comet: I received an email from a 15 years old school boy from a north eastern state school on 5-July-2005, the day after the event "Mr. Kalam please tell me how important the Deep Impact spacecraft impacting on the comet Tempel-1? I was very happy to receive this question, even though I know the event I didn't give thoughts. Then immediately I have to give an answer, I have searched the information in many websites and then sent the following answer.

"A few days back one important event took place in space. That was the impact of the NASA spacecraft called deep impact smashing into the comet Tempel-I, with enough force to create football stadium sized crater with a depth of a 14 storey building. The spacecraft was navigated by an Indian Shyam Bhaskaran - the deep impact traveled 431 million kms in 172 days escaping from the earth orbit and intercepted the comet at a straight distance from earth at 134 million km. The comet was orbiting around the Sun every five and half years. This is a land mark in space exploration.

This event is important to divert in case of asteroids which may hit the earth in future. One such large asteroid 1950 AD is expected to hit the earth on March 16, 2880 AD. Like the "Deep Impact" many spacecrafts are required to be sent with high energy material to divert or break the asteroid to move it out of the earth orbit."

Still the boy was not satisfied, he again sent an email by asking what the probability of hitting the earth is? The email correspondence is continuing.

What is the message emanating out these four questions? It shows that the children are very inquisitive and they want to learn new things. This is the period the students make up their mind, whether they should go for science, engineering, medical, bio, law or humanities. This decision is based on the answers they get for the question. Now I would like to share with you how the eminent scientists behaved when they were young.

Teachers influence

In Albert Einstein life, we find that his interest in science started early, beginning with his encounter with magnetism, which he called "the first miracle". He was given a compass by his father and Einstein was endlessly fascinated by the fact that invisible forces could make object move. This experience made a lasting impression on him. His interest in compasses was reinforced when he found a caring mentor to hone his ideas. At the age of 12, he experienced second wonder in a little book given by his mentor Max Talmud with Euclidean plain Geometry which he called "Holy Geometry Book". Einstein called this his �second miracle�. Here Einstein made contact with the realm of pure thought. Without expensive laboratories or equipment, he could explore universal truth, limited only by the power of human mind. Mathematics became an endless source of pleasure to Einstein especially if intriguing puzzle and mysteries were involved.

Visualizing pictures: Einstein's father was in an electro chemical business. Being in the midst of electro magnetic contraptions awakened an intuitive understanding of electricity and magnetism in Albert Einstein. It sharpens his ability to develop graphic, physical pictures that would describe the laws of nature with uncanny accuracy. This trait, the ability to see everything in terms of physical pictures, would mark one of Einstein�s greatest characteristics as a physicist.

Freedom to Learn : Though born in Germany, Einstein moved to Zurich Polytechnic Institute in Switzerland. The entry into the polytechnic did not require a high school diploma, just a passing grade on its tough entrance examination was sufficient. Einstein failed in the entrance examination but he did exceptionally well in the Maths and Physics section. That impressed the Principal and he promised to take him during the following year without an entrance test. The message we get from this experience is about having a flexible system of admission. Also an ability to spot the aptitude of the student in a particular subject and nourishing the talents. In addition, Einstein enjoyed the liberal atmosphere of the Swiss school.

Simplicity in description: Unlike other scientists who often got lost in Mathematics, Einstein got in terms of simple physical picture - speeding trains, falling elevators, rockets and moving clocks. These pictures would unerringly guide him through the greatest ideas of the twentieth century. He wrote "All physical theories, their mathematical expression notwithstanding, ought to lend themselves to so simple a description that even a child could understand". This is a very important message for all physics researchers and physics teachers. Here the birth of famous simple, elegant and very powerful energy equation E=MC2, which decided war and peace system of the world. Now I would like to discuss about the Nobel Laureate towards Raman Effect.

Towards Raman Effect

Why is the sea blue? The view has been expressed that the dark blue of the deep sea has nothing to do with the color of water. It is simply the blue of the sky seen by reflection. Sir CV Raman then questions this view describing his own experiment on board the ship: Observations made in this way in the deeper waters of Mediterranean and Red sea showed that the color so far, from being impoverished by suppression of sky reflection was wonderfully improved here by. It was abundantly clear from the observation that the blue color of the deep sea is a distinct phenomenon itself and not merely an effect due to reflected sky light. Later Raman draws attention to the connection between the color of deep waters and the Einstein Smoluchowski formula. Naturally he starts with that the sky is blue because of scattering of light by the molecules in the upper atmosphere. The color of the sea is a different matter. Rayleigh believes it was all due to reflection, but Raman gives an entirely different view, that in this phenomenon, as in the parallel case of the color of sky, molecular diffraction determines the observed luminosity and in great measures also its color. Hence the birth of the Raman Effect. Now I would like to discuss with you on the topic �for creative mind nothing is impossible�.

Nothing is impossible?

Human flight is nothing but creativity of human mind and it undergoes several struggles to achieve excellence. In 1895, a great well-known scientist Lord Kelvin, who was the President of Royal Society of London said, "any thing heavier than air cannot fly, and cannot be flown." Within a decade, Wright Brothers proved man could fly of course at heavy risk and cost.

On the successful completion of Moon Mission in 1969, Von Braun, a very famous rocket designer, who built Saturn-V, to launch the capsule with astronauts and made moon walk a reality, in 1975 said "If I am authorized, I will remove the word impossible".

In ancient days, Ptolemaic astronomy is a widely used system in calculating the dynamics of various stars and planets. Assumption by then was that the earth is flat. What a scientific struggle had to take place to prove that the earth is spherical in shape orbiting around the sun. The three great astronomers Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler had to give a new dimension to the world of astronomy. Today we take it for granted that earth is a globe, orbiting around the sun, and the sun orbits in the Milky Way. All the technological advancements we have today are the outcome of scientific exploration of scientists of earlier centuries. At no time, man was beaten by problems. He strives continuously to subjugate impossibility and then succeeds.

According to the laws of aerodynamics the bumble bee should never be able to fly. Because of the size, weight, and shape of its body in relationship to the total wing span, flying is scientifically impossible. The bumble bee, being ignorant of scientific theory, goes ahead and flies anyway. I would like the youth assembled here to take a lesson from these examples and work to make everything possible.

Beautiful minds

I would like to share a creative work presented in painting competition. Aardhra Krishna a thirteen year old girl, has worn her thinking cap on and let her imagination fly. She has visualized how the earth will look like around 3000 AD. In her imagination, the citizens are forced to migrate to Mars and have made Mars the home to a flourishing civilization. This advanced civilization, which was man made comes suddenly under threat created by nature in the form of an asteroid of Jupiter. The asteroid from Jupiter was coming towards Mars and Mars was in danger of extinction. The scientists on Mars come up with a very innovative plan of a barrage of nuclear cannons to attack the oncoming asteroid. The bombardment destroys the asteroid and the year 3000 sees a Martian civilization surviving from the fury of the nature by scientific innovation. What a beautiful scientific thinking of Aardhra Krishna? Now I would like to discuss about the importance of elevating the young minds through moral classes.

Elevating the young minds

While I was in college, I remember the lectures given by highest authority of the Jesuit institution Rev Father Rector Kalathil of St. Joshep�s college, Trichirappalli, Tamilnadu. Every week on Monday, he will take class for an hour. He used to talk about good human beings, present and past, and what makes a good human being. In this class he used to give lectures on personalities such as Buddha, Confucius, St. Augustine, Califa Omar, Mahatma Gandhi, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln including some scientific personalities and moral stories linked to our civilizational heritage. He also used to talk about great personalities living in the father�s lodge and who had made contribution with values in the service of the people. It is essential in the secondary schools and colleges to arrange a lecture by a great teacher of the institution once in a week for one hour on India�s civilizational heritage. This class can be called as a Moral Science Class. That will elevate the young minds to love the country, to love the other human beings and elevate the young to higher planes. I am sure Padma Seshadri may be having moral science classes as a part of extra curricular activity.

Conclusion: Mission of the Teacher

School is an important environment where the character is getting shaped. The prime learning period for the children is five to seventeen years of age. The student spends approximately 25,000 hours in the school campus. Of course, at home, love and affection are imparted but again most of the time of the day is spent in preparing school's homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the school hours for children are the best time for learning and need best of environment, mission oriented learning with value system. I still hear the echo from Bestolozzy, a Greek teacher�s saying, "give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." That is the great confidence of the teacher. What a golden mission for the teachers of great character and value system in our schools. I am sure the teachers of Padma Seshadri schools will definitely build the character and value system among the students studying in this campus who will become role models.

Now, I would like to administer a six point oath to the students. Are you ready?

Six Point Oath

1. I will pursue my education with dedication and I will excel in it.

2. I will plant at least 5 saplings and shall ensure their growth through constant care.

3. I will constantly endeavor to remove the pain of my suffering brethren.

4. I will work for becoming an enlightened citizen and make my family righteous.

5. I will always be a friend of the mentally and physically challenged and will work hard to make them feel normal, like the rest of us.

6. We the children of Tamil Nadu promise that we will work hard with honesty to transform our State into a developed State. Happy and prosperous Tamil Nadu will make happy and prosperous India.

My best wishes to you all for success in your educational mission. May God bless you.

<<Back