Virtual Science Experiment Competition to be held
Chaitraly Deshmukh
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics celebrates the National Science Day by organising one of the biggest science festivals every year on February 28 and the next day at the campus of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Observatory located in the village of Khodad.
Programme details of GMRT Science Exhibition : The program will be inaugurated by Dr. Surendra Kulkarni, Senior Scientist and Science Outreach Expert, recently retired from TIFR Mumbai, along with Prof. Yashwant Gupta, the Centre Director of NCRA, Prof. Divya Oberoi and Dr. J.K. Solanki, Co-Chairs of GMRT Online Science Exhibition 2022 Committee and Nilesh Chhadawelkar of IIK Pune.
The programme will be available online – YouTube link – https://www.youtube.com/ncraoutreachcommittee/live.
Details of the GMRT Science Exhibition :
NCRA-GMRT will exhibit videos and posters on general astronomy, radio astronomy, engineering systems, etc. on their Science Day website – https://gmrtscienceday.ncra.tifr.res.in/.
This year, 776 students have submitted 558 Science Projects from 300+ schools and colleges, demonstrating their creative science ideas, from various schools and colleges from all over the country including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.
The inaugural program of the science exhibition will be shown live on Facebook, YouTube and GMRT-Growing Dot mobile app on February 28, 2022 and available on https://gmrtscienceday.ncra.tifr.res.in.
NCRA and the Indian Institute of Knowledge, Pune came together to explore and implement the idea of engaging our audience of school and college students using an Android app (Growing Dots) and content made available online.
‘This year with our partnership with IIK and NCRA members, we have built up on the model of last year and expanded it further. I am expecting a tremendous response from school and college students from all over the country, with active involvement also from the network of teachers and guides, all working towards our common goal of advancing scientific temper and knowledge amongst the general population in the country,’ said Prof Yashwant Gupta, Centre Director, NCRA.
“While, in our minds, this started as a substitute for the usual physical Science Day celebrations, the much wider reach of this experiment, both in terms of geographic distribution and the number of students and visitors we were able to reach,” said Dr J K Solanki, Sr. Officer NCRA and Co-Chair of the GMRT Science Day Committee NCRA.
“In addition to our flagship GMRT Science Day event, our activities range from conducting astronomy themed lectures and star gazing sessions in the rural areas around GMRT, inviting school and college students to visit the GMRT and learn about it, organising public viewings for events like solar eclipses and planetary transits, and working with like-minded professional and amateur organisations to increase our reach to the society,” said Professor Divya Oberoi, Scientist and Chair, NCRA Science Outreach Committee.
