Shillong, April 30: Around a dozen degree science students have joined hands for realising a dream of raising the level of science education in the state.
On Saturday, the young group completed a three-day hands on training of Fun-Sci programme which aims at making science learning more interesting, rather than a rigorous exercise, for class VI-VIII students.
“This group of young boys and girls are very talented and have the potential to introduce the fun elements of science among the students,” said Gajanan Vaidya, a veteran in science popularisation.
Vaidya along with Rajiv Natoo, who had volunteered in hundreds of such exercises across the country for several years, are in the city to train the young group on various fun exercises through which various basic scientific property can be learnt.
The group of young ‘facilitators’ comprise four including two girls from Garo Hills and seven including one girl from Khasi-Jaintia Hills. Uniqueness of the Fun-Sci programme is to introduce scientific exercises that can be done by students with scrap, easily available and cheap materials.
“Most students of class VI-VIII do not have access to laboratories and even if they have, it is only in the school. Fun-Sci help them carry out scientific experiments anytime and anywhere and also have fun,” says Rajib Das, secretary of TREE Foundation.
Fun-Sci is a joint initiative of TREE (Transformation Through Research Education and Empowerment) Foundation and the Meghalaya State Council for Science Technology and Environment (SCSTE).
Under the phase-I, the programme will cover 12 blocks of the state in the month of May while the rest of the total 39 blocks will be covered after the half-yearly examination.
Initially, one school in each block has been selected by the SCSTE to launch the Fun-Sci programme.
The first Fun-Sci workshop will be held at He’Mont Zenith Secondary School at Mylliem, East Khasi Hills district on Monday.
