Scouting and Nurturing Science talent
Divergent thinking or Creativity is evenly distributed in all societies in the world irrespective to cast and creeds.
On that count rural India should be a major source of creative minds that has remained untapped. Due to lack of opportunity and our city-centric policies, it may take decades before modern science and technology reaches to rural India. Meanwhile the Moving Academy of Medicine and Biomedicine, Pune has developed a highly successful module to nurture science talent in the remote sector of India including tribal regions. The module essentially consists of a base laboratory and village level hub of modern science and technology with extensive innovative outreach programs for rural and tribal schools. The programs are open to all, completely voluntary and are held on current topics outside the student’s curricula. For these reasons the programs attract only committed, talented students in spite of having no rewards. The module has the potential to change the face of science and technology in rural & tribal India, expanding the national pool of creative minds, which is the need of the hour.
So far academy has conducted its outreach activities in nine districts of Maharashtra; its spectrum covers coastal part of Ratnagiri to North-western parts of Maharashtra bordering Gujarat. Till date academy has conducted more than 150 science programs in 32 Secondary & Higher Secondary Schools of 21 tehsil of Maharashtra for 13,613 students.
Outreach activities conducted as part of this program.
| Program | Beneficiary |
|---|---|
| Experiential learning (Class VII-VIII) | 5572 students in 68 workshops |
| Hands-on technology workshop (skill) (Class IX) | 148 students in 4 workshops |
| Mobile Science Fair (Class IX-XII) | 7891 students in 86 workshops |
| Discovering little scientist (Class X-XII) | 247 students |
| Research conference for little scientist | 137 students |
Experiential learning (Class VII-VIII)
Students : 5572 Workshops : 68
Didactic teaching is the most widely practiced teaching modality all over the world. However, to spot imaginative and analytical brains the best approach will be to use the system of experiential learning or “learning through experimentation”, where observations are made first and reasoned out later. This form of teaching requires that the learner should be actively involved in experiments and should have analytical mind to interpret results and conceptualized the observations.
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Hands on technology workshops for school children (Class IX)
Students : 148 Workshops : 4
One of the major problems of Indian educational system (especially for science subject) is that students hardly get any hands-on experience which becomes a permanent handicap for their future studies and career. Previous year, on an experimental basis, a four-day hands-on workshop on science and technology was organized for non-Tribal school children of Pune district.
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Mobile Science fairs (Class IX-XII)
Students : 7891 Workshops : 86
The main idea of this program, which is in vogue for the last 10 years, is to expose students to current topics in science and technology which are outside the syllabus to enlarge their vision. The participation is entirely voluntary. Further these hands-on workshops are held on Sundays and holiday also. Therefore only those whose wish to acquire knowledge outside their books attend the program which is very popular.
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Discovering little scientist (Class X-XII)
Students : 247
This is a two-month summer vacation research program for class X-XII students. The program has been a huge success attracting more and more students every year. The aim of this program was to provide research opportunities to students at a very young age (15–18 years).
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Research conference (Held jointly with Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-IISER, Pune)
Students : 137
This is the first such event in the history of Indian science where a research conference is being held for class X-XII students. At the conference participants of academy’s program of “Discovering Little Scientists” presented their research work. It is one of the unique and most successful program where little scientist get a platform to present their research work, followed by poster exhibition.
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