Students introduced to plant preservation

CHENNAI: A workshop on ‘Preservation of plants and Plant modelling Technique’  at the government museum opened up a whole new world for the students of Class 9, at the Presidency Girls Higher Secondary School, on Friday.Speaking on the occasion, SS Jawahar, Commissioner of Museums, said, “For school students, the textbooks provide only a two-dimensional learning experience. Here, in a museum, which is a repository of cultural heritage, they are getting a chance at three-dimensional learning. They also get an opportunity to handle live plants and learn the techniques of preserving them for future and also clay modelling.”This workshop was conducted by the Botany section of the  Government Museum to impart the importance of preserving plant life, which is fast disappearing, and also to incite interest among students to pursue Botany as a discipline of study. The Commissioner of Museums also released a brochure on plant modelling.MP Rajasivaprakash, Artist Modeller, who has over two decades of experience in the field, demonstrated the efficacy of making replicas of real objects through the mould and cast technique to the group of  students.He used a bitter gourd as a specimen and showed them how to make a clay cast. He started with the  support bed and then proceeded  to make a split mould, then tying moulds together and pouring in Plaster of Paris into the small entry hole to make the bitter gourd cast. At the end of the process, much to the excitement of the students, a lovely clay bitter gourd was extracted from the mould. The students also practised on some other vegetables like coconut and ladies finger.MP Rajasivaprakash advised the students to make use of the princh chalk, at regular intervals, to keep the clay non-sticky. Uthara, a student said, “We are exposed to many new interesting things here. This is a great learning experience.” Preethi, another student, said, “I am completely enjoying myself here, I love plants, maybe I will major in Botany when I go to college.” In the afternoon session, they learnt how to make herbarium, which is a great way to preserve the fast disappearing herb species.