Imagine a science teacher holding two pieces of chalk in his hands to explain a chemical reaction in a high school class. The teacher, Abhilash Thiruvoth of the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Girls in Kozhikode, says that many students fail to grasp the chemistry even after such demonstrations.
Thiruvoth argues that a 40‑minute lesson rarely allows a full experiment, and bringing all students to a lab at once is impractical. To overcome this, he created a portable chemistry lab called ‘Rasappetti’, a wooden box that lets teachers demonstrate simple experiments during class.
The box contains goggles, beakers, test tubes, conical flasks, a spirit lamp, and diluted acids such as acetic, nitric, sulphuric and hydrochloric. Bases like sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, coloured salts such as copper sulphate and potassium chromate, and indicators such as phenolphthalein and methyl orange are also stored, along with a silver nitrate solution. The kit can last up to two months.
Designed by Thiruvoth and built by his friend Jinesh, the kit costs about ₹10,000 to produce. Teachers for classes six to ten can customize its contents to match their syllabus.
The idea emerged three years ago when Thiruvoth, an artist and former teacher resource person, noticed many teachers lacked practical knowledge.
He believes Rasappetti can rekindle students’ interest.
