‘All students are brilliant, they only need guidance and mentoring’

Hemant Pande, head of the Chemistry Department, Hislop College, has been teaching for 37 years. He has always been different from others as a science teacher. He has taught science in a non-conventional manner and trained others to involve students in learning science through practice. He has promoted science among students not just in city schools but across institutions all over India.
In the last decade, he has specifically been associated with the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS), a government of India programme. He is chairperson of the Scientific Review Committee of IRIS since 2014 and will hold the post till December this year. For the first time since its establishment in 2006, an IRIS panel chairperson has been honoured by the union ministry of science and technology with the ‘visionary leadership’ award.
TOI spoke to Pande about science education, promotion of science and his successful mentoring of students from city who made it to the Intel International Science and Engineering fair (ISER). Excerpts...
Q. Currently, finishing syllabus is the first priority. But you have been teaching science by doing it. How did you manage to do this and did it make any difference?
A. I always tried to innovate ways of teaching and interactive learning. Initially, it was not easy but when I began involving students in science exhibitions the change began. Way back in 1991-1992, I organized a state level exhibition in the city. I give popular science talks in different cities. I had designed a ‘chemical magical show’ in 2011 and have conducted it at 150 places in the country including remote places like Dantewada. The show is now available on YouTube. I also conduct workshops for chemistry and other science teachers.
Q. How and when did you get involved with IRIS?
A. IRIS was set up by the government is 2006 by bringing together the Department of Science and Technology, Indo-US Technology Forum and Intel with the aim of infusing a spirit of discovery and research methodology among students. Till then, it was called as Intel Science Talent and Discovery Fair (ISTDF) since 1998. I joined as a scientific review committee (SRC) member in ISTDC in 1999 at Mumbai. An SRC member is expected to do three jobs — selection of students, judging them in the contest as well as mentoring them. After formation of IRIS, I continued as SRC member but was given the responsibility of chairing the SRC in 2014.
Q. How do you get students to participate in IRIS?
A. Till 2010, students were expected to apply online through direct entries. This had limited students participating from only metros. But, from then on best projects from different national level science projects competitions like CBSE, NCERT, NCSM, INSPIRE, Children Science Congress etc started getting selected at IRIS. Now, every year we get students from remote villages like Kupam village in Karnataka. Out of the best 100 projects from IRIS, 15 are selected for the international competition called Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISER) held in USA where 2,000 students from 80 countries compete.
Q. You have mentored many students in Nagpur and rest of the country. You were also judge at the ISER. Does this motivate you to continue popularizing science your way?
A. Yes, mentoring is a big motivation. In 2010, I mentored a student, Raghvendra Ramchandran from Chennai, for two years for ISER. He bagged the highest award in Chemistry with US$9,000 as prize money. It even made me realize my potential. He was called the ‘Little Star’ and was invited for the Nobel Prize distribution ceremony at Stockholm in 2012. I led the Indian team to ISER in 2011 as the team manager. Last year, I judged in ‘Energy Chemical Category’ at the ISER.
Q. How does SRC prepare students for these competitions?
A. Most projects which reach national competition are either survey based or static models. Since most of the students are just high school pass at the time of participating, they are very raw. We train students to take up completely innovative and working projects which use the real science ‘research methodology’ as ‘innovation’ is the basic criteria for judging any project at ISER. It requires lots of efforts to train them not just in selection of projects but in presentation, soft skills, language along with best possible modifications. We hold at least three orientation camps before sending them abroad. SRC has members from IITs, universities, scientists from institutions who prepare the students for IRIS and ISER.
Q. How many students from Nagpur have made it to ISER? Do you feel Nagpur schools still lack awareness or are not forthcoming?
A. Students everywhere are very brilliant. They only need guidance and mentoring. Except for a few, most of the Nagpur schools are not very aware of these competitions. The students did very well when the schools agreed to send them. Four projects from Nagpur of Swati Soman from BVM Civil Lines (2009), Shireen Jaiswal (2010), Centre Point School, Katol Road, Aditya Bhopale (2015) and Divya Kranthi and Suhani Jain (this year) did win good prizes. Besides Raghvendra Ramchandran, Kopal Gupta and Shreya Nandi, Hetal Vishnav from Rajkot and Ishani Boomer, all students from other cities were mentored by me and won very good prizes for the country.