'Scientists should visit rural areas'

Launching ‘Science in Action,’ an exhibition organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium he said the system where doctors are required to work in rural areas should be extended to other professions as well.

 “We are very urban-centred. But efforts should be put in to create resources for students in rural areas,” he said.

Although still in the conception stage, Sreekumar talked about a plan to take entire science exhibitions to rural areas. “A large number of rural candidates have contributed to science and they show more enthusiasm than the some of the urban students,” he said.

Sreekumar said that ISRO was in talks with the planetarium as well as partnering with other organisations to promote scientific knowledge in the villages. “Chandraayan--I had a lot of visibility. So we are interested in sharing knowledge. However, we don’t have any interactive mechanism in place yet,” he said.  

Science Exhibition

The three day annual exhibition has experiments divided in four sections - Computers, Mechanics, Mathematics and Physics - and is expected to get around 2,000 students per day. While the Planetarium has developed the experiment models, the demonstrations are done by volunteers from schools and colleges, said Planetarium Director Prof C S Shukre.
However, he highlighted the need to hone the students’ communication skills, which would not only help them understand the concepts but also enable them to explain it to others.