Watch | Meet Ankit Rathore, who is making physics fun with his apartment laboratory

Watch | Meet Ankit Rathore, who is making physics fun with his apartment laboratory

Ankit Rathore has a four-member viewers at his 3BHK apartment in Bellandur, Bengaluru. He removes two small, crimson bar magnets and a field of iron filings from his drawer. The viewers, all beneath 12, lean on the desk in entrance of them, rapt with consideration. After sprinkling the black iron mud on each magnets, Ankit brings the other poles shut to one another. The filings attempt to latch on to one another like two trapeze artists swinging from reverse ends. They unfold themselves just like the petals of a completely bloomed flower when Ankit brings the like poles of the magnets nearer. It is magnetism. But for the youngsters mesmerised by the motion of the filings, it looks like magic.

“Science is not magic. It is supposed to feel that way, right?” asks Ankit. “It should evoke a sense of wonder. It should inculcate in children an attitude of curiosity. Sadly, our schools don’t teach science in this manner. It is all about memorising formulas and remembering laws.”

This unstimulating system of rote studying is what Ankit tries to vary with youngsters. As a primary step, he transformed certainly one of his bedrooms in his apartment right into a physics laboratory, the place the magnet magic unfolded.

Physics was not Ankit’s past love. Despite having a mechanical engineering diploma from IIT Bombay, Ankit needed to pursue music. Hailing from a middle-class household in Ujjain, he didn’t have the monetary backing or the contacts to get a breakthrough. He wanted a day job to outlive in Mumbai. A buddy advised educating IIT-JEE aspirants. So, he joined as an teacher at a training centre. 

“That’s when I realised I had a thing for teaching. It came naturally to me. Though I did not give up on music, I enjoyed what I was doing.”

From 2015 to 2020, he taught JEE aspirants. Ankit additionally needed to do one thing greater than merely assist them get the requisite marks and clear the examination. He needed them to grasp what they have been studying theoretically. 

In 2020, when the pandemic pressured him to return to Ujjain, he deliberate to begin a YouTube channel. “The idea was to show them what they were learning.” So, he bought gear together with a Galvanometer, Linear Air Track, and Wimhurst Machine price a number of lakhs. Apart from the cash, he additionally invested many hours of his time making the movies for the channel. Unfortunately, it didn’t take off. 

So, a 12 months later, he moved to Bengaluru as a result of he had a number of pals who might assist him. For some time, he took personal tuition for JEE aspirants. A number of months later, Ankit realised he had been fishing within the unsuitable pond all alongside. “I felt that I should start with school children if I want to change the way science is taught in this country. The difference I see with the young children (compared to the JEE aspirants) is they do not care about being wrong. They are excited to share all possible ideas they can think of. So, it’s more like you are doing science with them rather than imparting your knowledge to them.”     

The results of that thought was the conversion of certainly one of Ankit’s bedrooms right into a physics laboratory. Last September, he invited a number of children and their mother and father from his apartment for a free session on inertia. Soon, phrase unfold about his little laboratory. More mother and father, particularly from the homeschooling neighborhood, enrolled their youngsters. Now, he teaches 50 younger individuals aged between seven and 15, break up into seven batches.

Ankit Rathore in his lab
| Photo Credit:
Ravichandran N

Unlike an everyday tuition centre, the place college students seldom get particular person consideration, Ankit limits his periods to a most of 4 so all can take part. “If you fall in love with something, you will find ways to learn that. So, more than teaching, my job is to make them love physics. To do that, I need to interact with them individually. Nobody should feel left out. I want them to express themselves.”

Ankit has additionally began on-line periods, the place he teaches as much as 15 college students. He additionally has plans to arrange offline laboratories. “Ideally, we should have something similar to The Exploratorium (a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco, founded by Frank Oppenheimer) in our country.”

From struggling to make ends meet as an aspiring musician, he lastly feels settled financially in doing what he loves: educating with a contact of creativity. “I know I set out to be a musician. What I am doing now, however, is more fulfilling. I like to surrender to life. I take where its flow takes me.”