Centre kindles spirit of science among kids

The Science Centre was introduced in the month of January 2010 with an intention to provide a practical exposure to Science, specially to the otherwise ignored group of students from the government schools. Accordingly to support the cause, the State Government had a tie up and a contract for three years with a NGO- Agasthya International Foundation from Bangalore which executed the plan of the government and made it a reality.

Science Centre is a practical laboratory, having all kinds of science related equipment to support the students for the better understanding of the subject. In Dakshina Kannada, the Centre was initially established in DIET centre to make the students avail the benefit of receiving hands on learning experience of the Science subject. Later, for various reasons, the Centre was shifted to the campus of DK ZP HP School in Moodushedde, where, as many as 700 students are benefitting from the programme now.
Speaking to City Herald, programme in-charge officer of the three districts Arun kumar said that Science Centre has been established keeping in mind the students of Higher Primary School. “Though the Centre has been instituted in Moodushedde School, it is open for the students of any government schools in the district. The two faculty members of the Centre demonstrate the experiments and explain the models to the students as per the requirement,” he informs.

Though the Centre has found not much profiteering for all the school students in the district owing to the ‘location factor,’ the enormous benefit obtained from the Moodushedde School children can’t be undermined. Thanks to the Science Centre for enabling the little student like Sahadiya to elucidate the science concepts to her classmates now with all confidence and understanding of the subject. Sahadiya believes that the Science Centre has provided her and her friends a wide knowledge of the subject. “We attend the Science Centre classes once or twice a week and we have literally started liking Science now, as the demonstrations and models displayed here draws our interest,” she claims.

The centre that has been established at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh, has 150 models and science related equipment in it ranging from Stethoscope to inertia of motion, from petrol engine to Newton Disk, from blood circulation system model to chemical combinations and what not! The Centre has already hit the chord by demonstrating the equipment to more than 7,000 students in a span of just 8 months. Describing the enthusiasm of the rural students towards Science, Arun Kumar says that Science Centre has largely helped the children to build affection towards the subject. “In the initial days, I used to find most of the students sitting quiet in the Science classes as it was obvious that they were finding the subject tough, but off late, a gradual transformation has occurred among the students and they involve in the class with all enthusiasm,” he says. The faculty members — Jeethendra and Usha Kumari — of Science Centre not only engage the class based on the syllabus, but also go beyond it to widen the children’s thought process.

Science workshops are also conducted for the science teachers from the Government School of the district under Science Centre. As many as 303 teachers from various schools are divided into different batches, each batch consisting of 30 teachers, for whom three days workshop will be conducted at the Centre. The first batch has already completed the workshop and the Centre aims to wrap up the programme within next five months.

Apart from all this, to bring more awareness about Science among the students, the Centre is also planning to organise a Science Fair in a big way in the district. The preliminary works for the fest will be undertaken soon, informs Arun Kumar.
With all the above activities taking place in order to bring awareness about the Science, no wonder if a Science revolution occurs in the district in a near future!