Exhibition of Elizabeth Burne's painting at the ADLS Sunshine School. Picture by Bhola Prasad.

Jamshedpur, Sept. 8: Students of ADLS Sunshine School in Sakchi are getting lessons in biology through art.

If the concept seems hard to believe, visit the painting exhibition of Elizabeth Burnes at the school.

The exhibition is also serving as a biology class for students.

The paintings of human anatomy by UK-based scientist and painter Elizabeth Burnes have been exhibited in two other schools ? Gulmohar High School and Telco, Kerala Public School, Kadma ? and will be featured in more.

Brought to the city by the Association of British Scholars (ABS), a city-based organisation of people educated from British universities, the exhibition is being seen as a novel way of building up interest in biology amongst students.

The painting not only just display organs of the human body in the most artistic way, some of them have a very imaginative take on diseases.

One such painting is a beautiful depiction of the struggle between HIV virus and body cells. The red blood cells being attacked by white annular shaped HIV virus, the gradual deformation and the eventual disintegration of the blood cells is graphic and comprehensive. But for the explanatory plaques attached to every canvas, the paintings could have been mistaken for modern art.

Schools are organising interactive sessions, quiz competitions and panel discussions by doctors in conjunction with the exhibition.

Teachers of ADLS feel the paintings are bound to arouse interest even in students who do not like science. ?Studying medicine is not easy. Not everyone gets the opportunity to do so. Moreover, a mere MBBS degree is not enough. A medical student spends nearly eight years and more just studying. By organising discussions with doctors, we are trying to educate students on the various options available beyond medicine,? said Shobha Madan, principal of ADLS Sunshine School.

Education in the city is stepping out of classrooms and venturing into industries, museums and historical places as schools wake up to the fact that lessons need not necessarily be taught in classrooms.

?Science students are often taken out for industrial visits, while commerce students are made familiar with accounting techniques and the functioning of various corporate offices,? said Madan.

?Every year our students are taken for educational trips to local industrials unit. For the past two years our students had been taken to Tata Cummins and this year they would be visiting Tata Motors. The students are exposed to the manufacturing processes, various pollution control and safety measures taken by the companies,? said O.A. Joseph, principal, Hill Top School.