14 marksCuriosity Grade 8, Chapter 3, Activity 3.1, page 29
In Activity 3.1, what was the cause of the boy's health problems? How did his habits and surroundings affect his well-being?
Hint. Trace the chain backwards from the headaches to what started it.
What happened. A Grade 8 student moved to a new school in another city. He had no friends in the new environment and his parents were busy, so he felt lonely. To cope, he spent more time on his phone and social media — but this made him feel worse. He stopped trying to make friends, and then developed headaches, lost weight, and could not sleep well.
The cause. Not an infection. The root was loneliness and social isolation after moving — a social health problem, which became a mental one, which finally produced physical symptoms.
How his habits made it worse. Excess screen time was his response to loneliness, but it deepened the problem: it replaced real contact rather than restoring it, and it was tied to his poor sleep. Withdrawing from attempts to make friends removed the one thing that could have helped.
How his surroundings mattered. A new city, an unfamiliar school, no existing friendships, and parents too busy to notice early — the environment gave him no support to fall back on.
What worked. The doctor advised less screen time and meeting a counsellor; the school counsellor arranged help to support him in making friends. The remedy targeted the social and mental causes, and the physical symptoms followed.
✦ Answer: the cause was loneliness and social isolation, not any infection — his excess screen time and withdrawal worsened it, and his new, unsupportive surroundings gave him nothing to fall back on, until counselling and friendship addressed the real problem.
23 marksCuriosity Grade 8, Chapter 3, Section 3.1, page 29
How does the World Health Organization define health? What are the three aspects of health shown in Fig. 3.1?
Hint. The definition contains a deliberate 'not merely'.
The WHO definition. Health is 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease'.
The three aspects (Fig. 3.1):
| Aspect | What it covers |
|---|
| Physical | The body working properly — nutrition, activity, sleep, freedom from illness |
| Mental | Feeling good, staying positive, coping with difficulty |
| Social | Strong relationships, getting on with peers and with society |
Why 'not merely the absence of disease' matters. It rules out the easy test. A person with no infection is not automatically healthy — the boy in Activity 3.1 had no disease at all, yet had headaches, weight loss and sleeplessness. Under the WHO definition he was clearly unhealthy.
What a healthy person can do. The chapter puts it in practical terms: perform various tasks more efficiently, cope well in different and difficult situations, and adjust well with peer groups and other members of society.
✦ Answer: WHO defines health as 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease' — the three aspects being physical, mental and social, so having no illness is not by itself enough.
33 marksCuriosity Grade 8, Chapter 3, Our scientific heritage, page 29
What does Ayurveda teach about health? Explain dinacharya, ritucharya and prakriti.
Hint. The Ayurvedic idea of health is a balance between three things.
The central idea. Ayurveda teaches that true health is a balance of body, mind and surroundings — strikingly close to the WHO's physical, mental and social triad, because both treat health as more than the condition of the body alone, and Ayurveda arrived at it long before.
The three terms:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Dinacharya | Daily routine — regular habits followed each day |
| Ritucharya | Seasonal routine — adjusting habits as the seasons change |
| Prakriti | Body constitution — an individual's own make-up, to which food should be suited |
What it recommends. Eating fresh, wholesome food suited to one's prakriti; regular exercise; cleanliness; restful sleep; and a calm mind. These can also be supported through yoga, meditation and mindfulness.
The idea worth noticing in prakriti. It says the right diet is not the same for everyone — advice should be matched to the individual. And ritucharya says it is not even the same all year for one person.
How this fits the chapter. Every one of these — routine, suitable food, exercise, cleanliness, sleep, a calm mind — reappears in section 3.2's list of how to stay healthy.
✦ Answer: Ayurveda holds that health is a balance of body, mind and surroundings, maintained through dinacharya (daily routine), ritucharya (seasonal routine) and food suited to one's prakriti (body constitution), supported by exercise, cleanliness, restful sleep and a calm mind.
43 marksCuriosity Grade 8, Chapter 3, Section 3.2 and Activity 3.2, pages 29-30
List habits that support health and habits that damage it, as the chapter asks in Activity 3.2.
Hint. The chapter gives four of each and invites you to add more.
Good habits (the chapter's four, plus the lifestyle list from 3.2.1):
- Keep yourself clean by maintaining personal hygiene
- Eat a healthy and balanced diet — plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
- Exercise regularly — playing outdoors, walking, running, cycling
- Make time to relax or meditate every day
- Get enough sleep, so body and mind rest and recover
- Practise yoga or pranayama breathing exercises
- Spend time in nature, and with family and friends
Habits that are not good for health:
- Too much time on mobile phones or other digital screens
- Eating fast food and junk food every day
- Sleeping very late or not getting enough sleep
- Skipping meals, especially breakfast
- Processed, fatty or sugary food and drinks
- Tobacco, alcohol and addictive drugs — say 'NO'
The point of the activity. You are asked how many are already part of your routine and which you would like to start — because a list you do not act on changes nothing. The chapter's conclusion is that health depends on lifestyle (how we live) and environment (our surroundings).
✦ Answer: good habits include personal hygiene, a balanced diet, regular exercise, relaxation or meditation, enough sleep and yoga; harmful ones include excess screen time, daily junk food, sleeping late, skipping breakfast and tobacco, alcohol or drugs — the chapter's point being that health depends on lifestyle and environment.
Solutions written by the tuition.in editorial team and checked against NCERT Curiosity - Textbook of Science for Grade 8 (hecu103.pdf), Chapter 3 'Health: The Ultimate Treasure', pages 28-45, Reprint 2026-27. HAND-WRITTEN throughout. Page count verified against the printed contents page (hecu1ps.pdf p.18): 18 pages, 28-45, matching exactly. Covers the 5 'Probe and ponder' prompts (p.28), all 7 activities (3.1-3.7), every in-text section (3.1-3.5.1), both 'Our scientific heritage' boxes (Ayurveda; variolation and teekedaars), both 'Be a scientist' boxes (Kamal Ranadive; Maharaj Kishan Bhan), both 'Think like a scientist' boxes (Jenner; Fleming), the 'Ever heard of' box on India's vaccine production, the 11 numbered 'Keep the curiosity alive' exercises (pp.42-45) and the 5 'Discover, design, and debate' projects (p.45). ALL OF TABLE 3.1 TRANSCRIBED FROM THE PDF rather than from memory - 10 diseases with causal agent, site of infection, symptoms and preventive measures, in the book's own three groupings (air-spread: common cold and influenza, chickenpox, measles, tuberculosis; water- and food-spread: hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid, ascariasis; insect-transmitted: malaria, dengue). Exercise Q7's dengue figures were transcribed and re-read: Jan 10, Feb 12, Mar 15, Apr 18, May 22, Jun 40, Jul 65, Aug 65, Sep 65, Oct 30, Nov 30, Dec 20 - so the three peak months are July, August and September at 65 each and the lowest is January at 10, with the rise beginning in June and the fall in October, which matches the monsoon and is the basis of the answer to (iii). Exercise Q10 was answered by route of transmission using Table 3.1: hepatitis A, poliomyelitis and cholera spread by faecal contamination of water, while tuberculosis and chickenpox are airborne and do not. THREE POINTS OF DELIBERATE CAUTION. (1) The 'could climate change lead to NEW types of diseases' prompt is answered as changing WHERE, WHEN and HOW MUCH existing diseases occur, with the emergence of genuinely new diseases flagged as an open research question rather than asserted. (2) The CPR project answer gives the broad current sequence and India's emergency number 112, but states plainly that CPR is a practical skill that cannot be learnt from a written description, that guidelines are periodically revised, and that it must be learnt hands-on from a qualified instructor - which is what the book itself asks by suggesting a doctor demonstrate a mock drill. (3) The four Indian scientists in the reading project are given as starting points describing the FIELD each worked in, with the student told to verify and cite sources and to note disagreement between them, rather than being handed specific dates and claims to reproduce.. Questions are referenced from the NCERT textbook for identification.
