Twitter
Advertisement

Bangalore: On a roll! Science labs on motorcycles

City-based trust wins Google Impact Award for spreading science education to rural, govt schools.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

When children are not able to access science, take science to them. Agastya, a Bangalore-based trust, applies this simple logic to spread science education among rural children. Winner of Google Impact Award 2013, Agastya’s mission is to spark curiosity, nurture creativity and instil confidence in economically disadvantaged children and teachers. It does this by bringing innovative science education to the doorstep of government schools in various states of the country.

Agastya has launched a network of motorbike science labs, TechLaBike, to address the lack of science equipment and digital resources for rural children. Under this program, a trained instructor reaches schools on a motorbike equipped with a lab in a box (LIB) and an internet enabled laptop. The LIB is a set of 10 theme-based boxes covering a variety of topics in science, aligned to the school curriculum. Each box contains low-cost, teaching aids and science models that enable hands-on learning.

Laptops are used to provide additional enrichment through simple mouse-based science games, quizzes, language neutral videos and multimedia conferencing.

“TechLaBike represents a natural evolution of our mobile science lab programme. The project will enable a network of schools and teachers to embrace interactive and participatory learning methods leveraging multimedia and internet technology in tandem with hands-on science. This will counter the chronic and ineffective rote-based and didactic modes of teaching prevalent in the school system,” says Ramji Raghavan, founder and chairman of Agastya International Foundation.

To date, Agastya’s program has reached over five million children. “TechLaBike will substantially increase Agastya’s reach as well as increase the depth and richness of coverage. With the launch of TechLaBike project, we plan to positively impact over one million children and teacher interactions in 1,620 schools in Karnataka over a three year period,” he says.

The prize money provided by Google will be used to develop network of teachers to foster greater communication and interaction among them.

“We would also use this opportunity to partner more closely with the government and increase government and private sector support for Agastya programs. In addition, we will be using the grant money to enhance access to global content through the internet,” he says.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement