They take Sanskar of Science
| Date :28-Apr-2019 |
Dr Abhinav Deshpande delivering lecture on Robotic Surgery at NEERI auditorium and children seen attending it keenly.
By Vikas Vaidya:
Come summer and various camps start getting momentum. The adventurous camp, personality development, handwriting are some of the subjects covered in the camps. But have you ever heard of a camp that imparts Sanskar of Science? If not then you must visit National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) where you will find children of Class VI to IX taking Sanskar of Science-- an initiative of Vigyan Bharati. It’s always said, interest should be generated among children about Science. But nobody knows how. Considering this aspect, Vigyan Bharati came up with an idea to do Sanskar of science on children.
A faculty explaining students about the concept of biodiversity
“There can be n number of science camps but the uniqueness of our camp lies in Sanskar. We do Sanskar of science on these children. Faculties teaching here have taken lot of efforts as they have to teach their subjects in such a way that children will be able to understand the same,” described Vasundhara Sathe, a retired teacher of Mathematics and Convenor of the camp. What Sathe said is right. Science is a vast subject and has many branches like environmental science, forensic science, medical science etc. Everyday Science accommodates newer technology, the advancement and everybody has to get updated. Teaching scientific aspects making them easier for the students is a difficult task. For example, Dr Abhinav Deshpande, a young professional who has expertise in Robotic Surgery explained the students about his subject from the basics.
Students seen during the registration for the camp.He endeavoured to find the basics of Robotics, and taught the children in such a way that they could understand it completely. Similarly, Ashish Badhiye, a young teacher in Institute of Forensic Science, taught children finer nuances of forensic science. So this way, faculties visited the camp put their hearts into their teachings. Reaching of Vigyan Bharati to the schools was an interesting journey. It was instrumental in conducting science exhibition ‘Kutuhal’ in the premises of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT). During that time, the Organisation reached many schools to have their participation in ‘Kutuhal’. Taking advantage of that exercise, Vigyan Bharati put the proposal of camp on Sanskar of Science being held in NEERI to which 27 schools responded. Vigyan Bharati asked all those schools to send five students of Class VI to IX for the camp. Vigyan Bharati took all the responsibility of the camp and did not charge a single penny from the students. Apart from laboratories, NEERI has made its auditorium available for this activity.
All the sessions are being held at auditorium. Satish Ghare said, “Our efforts are to arouse interest among children for Science. We want to develop thinking ability of children. If stories are told about science then students can learn it. Basically our endeavor is that children should understand the basics of the scientific components.” “Sanskar can change the attitude of children towards science. Faculties here teach them how to develop research acumen in them. Here the scientific approach automatically is imbibed into them. We did not keep parents into dark. We explained to their parents what we were going to teach them. I must appreciate one thing about parents who enthusiastically bring students to NEERI at 7.30 am and pick them up at 10.30 am.
We are grateful to NEERI, without its help it would not have possible,” informed Sathe. Ashish Sharma, Senior Scientist with NEERI was bubbling with enthusiasm while talking about the camp. He remarked, “We are having two-way communication. Camp is of interactive type. While interacting with the children we, too, have revisited our childhood. We enjoyed teaching these children which is a different experience from our day-to-day life.” Dr Rakesh Kumar, Director of NEERI who, with an open heart, allowed Vigyan Bharati to hold the camp and made available the premises for the children said, “We are trying to connect to the schools so that children can come to our premises and learn.
The well-maintained laboratories in NEERI have been opened to the children so that they can have some hands-on experience. We are happy that our institution could be of some help in generating interest for science among children.” Dr Atya Kaplay, Principal Scientist with NEERI who was instrumental in setting up Waste Management Park told with proud feeling, the children attending the camp have booked the park for the whole days and they keep visiting it with so much zeal. Apart from Dr Rakesh Kumar, Dr Atya Kaplay those extended their help from NEERI included Dr Rajesh Biniwale, Dr Ashish Sharma, both were the coordinators while faculty coordination was done by Dr Prakash Kumbhare and others. From Vigyan Bharati Prof Prashant Holay, President; Dr Mithilesh Tiwari, Vice-President; Dr Sanjay Wate, Secretary; Pradyumna Shouche, Treasurer; Naresh Chafekar, Vice-Secretary; Dr Sunil Bhutt, Associate Professor; Dr Prakash Itankar, Vasundhara Sathe, Vaidehi Sathe, Satish Ghare, Manisha Ghare, Ajit Shukla, Girish Joshi, Rashmi Shukla, Devashish Joshi, Ashish Jain, Suyog Gurjar, S S Gad and others worked hard to make the camp as successful one.