Tamil Nadu SSLC Science case studies

Tamil Nadu SSLC Science · Put your knowledge to work in context.

The Tamil Nadu SSLC Science examination is the science component of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate, the Class X public examination taken by students completing secondary schooling in Tamil Nadu. Most candidates sit it at the end of a two-year Class IX–X science course in a recognised school, following the Tamil Nadu Board syllabus; private and repeat candidates also write it. The Tamil Nadu SSLC Science case studies are 5 cases and about 3,555 words.

The trolley, the broken scale and the stopwatch

During a practical, a group pulls a 2.0 kg toy cart along a horizontal tiled floor with a spring balance held at a steady 3.0 N. One student starts a stopwatch as the cart passes a chalk mark and stops it when the cart passes a second mark 1.50 m away; the reading is 2.0 s.

755 words, about 4 min 2

Four unlabelled bottles and one set of litmus papers

Four colourless liquids in unlabelled bottles are left in a school laboratory after an exhibition. The teacher tells the science club that they are dilute hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide solution, sodium hydrogen carbonate solution and sodium chloride solution, but does not say which is which.

698 words, about 3 min 3

The onion strip that 'never recovered'

Two strips of epidermis peeled from the same onion scale leaf are mounted, one in distilled water and one in 5% salt solution. After five minutes under a compound microscope (10× eyepiece, 45× objective), the water mount shows cells whose purple pigment fills the cell right up to the wall, while in the salt mount the coloured contents have shrunk into rounded masses with clear spaces between them and the walls.

683 words, about 3 min 4

A, B and an O baby

At a village health camp, a newborn's blood group is recorded as O, the mother is A and the father is B. A relative insists there has been a mix-up at the hospital, arguing that 'an A mother and a B father can only produce AB children'.

680 words, about 3 min 5

Fourteen cases after the rain

A residential school draws its water from a hand pump located 8 m downslope of a cattle shed and 10 m from a soak pit. Two days after heavy rain, 14 of the 60 hostel students develop loose motions and vomiting within 36 hours.

739 words, about 4 min