'Trash toys' explain science

In 2011, Arvind Gupta, dressed in a kurta and trousers had an entire auditorium spellbound after he demonstrated how toys made from trash, used to explain science to children. The talk became so popular that noted British educationalist Sir Ken Robinson rated it among the top 10 educational talks of all time. However, Gupta, who spends most of his time in Pune inventing new toys from trash, doesn't seem to care about the fame and fortune. His mantra is simple: "We don't want to promote people, but promote ideas," he told dna.

Gupta participated in the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme in Madhya Pradesh in 1978. Over there, he developed the idea of creating simple toys and educational experiments with locally available materials, including trash.

Gupta readily acknowledges that children are more drawn to toys available in the market. "But," he adds, "they get bored of them quickly."

Explaining the importance of using toys as learning aids, Gupta says, "Children learn to manipulate with different kinds of materials while making toys and models. The materials give them a sense of "feel". Most of the science kits I have seen are very basic and children don't learn much from them. There are good toys – Mecanno and Lego, for instance, are great toys because children can invent designs that go beyond the printed brochure."

Gupta also expressed concern at the toxicity levels generated by cheap-quality toys. Cautioning parents to opt for straws, threads, copper wires, cycle spokes, ice cream sticks and simple working tools instead, he says that buying children raw materials is useful for them to build their own toys. "At the end of the day, it's a fruit of their labour," he says.

Gupta, aware that the attention span of children being rather short given it's the age of the internet, has reinvented himself to be more relevant to the millennial crowd. "Earlier, we had 15-minute videos. But now we make minute-long videos in 20 regional languages, explaining how to make the toy and the science behind it. We have 965 such videos and 47 million views on our YouTube channel," he says.

Years of working with children has kept Gupta young at heart. He recalls when he first made a DC motor on the principle of electromagnetism. "For almost a month, I would wake up in the middle of the night to run the motor for 15-minutes," he admits gleefully.