A visit to the Microbiologist

Since Swashikshan was launched in July 2012, we have been looking at how whatever we do for our kids could possibly be replicated by anybody in India. Visiting the real world, finding out how things work, how stuff is made, these are the things that make for a ‘real’ education and that is the philosophy behind Homeschooling by and large.

A Doctor friend of ours, who runs a lab, seeing that we were homeschooling, had expressed a desire to know more about it. In the course of our talks, she mentioned that she has a spare Microscope lying with her. We gladly took it up and have enjoyed using it at times.

We then thought amongst ourselves, how wonderful it would be if our kids could get to see the inside of a Pathology Lab, and see what makes up their blood under a microscope, things which only Medical graduates get to see.

So at rather short notice, a few of us gathered together and went to visit Clinilabs at Borivli, in October 2012.

Dr. Neena Patil, whose father was a teacher, was very glad to demonstrate everything in her Lab. She started by showing how blood is collected, by tying a tourniquet. She explained why it is tied, and how blood is collected in different bulbs for testing.

The different colour coded collection tubes are used for collecting blood and running different tests.

She also explained about Biomedical waste and how needle tips are burnt, and syringe tips are cut in theNeedle burner and Syringe cutter. Also the segregation of Medical waste and separate bags for disposal of sharps and other waste.

She explained in detail about how blood is checked, the centrifuge, the Incubator, and the different parts of the Microscope. Parents and children both learned a lot!

Then it was time for all of us to have a look at the Peripheral Smear! This is a drop of blood which is spread thin over a glass slide, stained and put under the Microscope.

We saw Red Blood cells, White blood cells, and also Malarial Parasites, the ring and dot forms. Wow!

She also showed us from the text books the various things we were seeing under the microscope.

Both young and old got a chance to see the miracles of the human body a bit better than ever before.

Since it was a small group, each child could get to see under the microscope under different magnifications.

All in all, it was a great learning experience. Such outings are a wonderful way for all who are a part of Swashikshan. I am ready to organize similar outings for anybody interested.

Here is the Resource tag:

Subject: Biology

Age groups: 7 to 17 yrs, and parents too

Number of persons: 10 to 15 at a time.

My email: drspmathew@gmail.com