Spark of Curiosity is a flagship project of tare zameen par Trust that provides immersive experiential and inspirational learning to remote area students, It is a combination of various programs that aims to ignite the curiosity to learn the science concepts.
Digital Mobile Planetarium Shows.
Science kits distribution.
Offline Lectures.
Virtual Lectures.
Virtual Teacher Training.
Group Activities by Students.
Interaction with Indian Scientist.
Quiz Competition.
Inauguration Event
The inauguration event was held at Government School in Saligrama Village in the Mysore district. Keeping COVID related protocols in account; it was organized offline as well as virtual mode. The Chief guests and Guests of honor were present virtually.
Guest :Â The science kits were virtually inaugurated by Hon Chief guest Sri Kiran Kumar, the renowned Indian Scientist and the former chairman of ISRO. In the virtual presence of guest of honor Sri Raja Subramanyam, VP, Application engineering, Synopsys, Sri A.B. Basavaraj KAS, Director (Technical), KSTePS, and the special guests Sri Mukesh B.A., Director Finance, Synopsys, Sri Chandrashekar B.U., Principal R&D Engineer, Synopsys, Sri Dinesh Badagandi, Founder, Tare Zameen Par, Sri Raveesh S R, Proprietor, Sara Vidya Mandir, Smt Vatsala S K, Vice Principal, Govt Junior college, Saligrama.
- Event Highlights: Â Around 300 students from the Saligrama Highschool and the nearby schools were present for the inauguration. All the guests were able to interact with students through a big screen. After the formal inauguration, the Guest of honor addressed the students. Then the Hon. Chief guest Sri Kiran Kumar shared his valuable experience and had an interaction session with students where students asked questions to him. Later we distributed science kits to all students. Simultaneously they also experienced the Digital Mobile Planetarium shows.Â
- Â Replication: after the first successful event, we have replicated this during all the next phases of Science Kit distribution.Â
- Glimpses:
Success of Mini Science Fair
Student’s Name: Karthik Katavate
Project: Rain Detector for Farmers
Achievement: The student’s innovative rain detector model was showcased at the Mini Science Fair and caught the attention of the Guest of Honor, Mr. Anand Kadakol.
Reward: Impressed with the idea and efforts, Mr. Kadakol generously awarded the student with a grant of ₹10,000 to develop a working prototype of the rain detector.
Commercial Potential: Mr. Kadakol expressed keen interest in potentially commercializing the model if it proves successful.
Distribution of Kits
We had targeted 3000 students from different geography. We tried to cover some areas in South Karnataka and Some areas in North Karnataka as well. We have distributed science kits in 26 Schools. While distributing kits we used to make sure that the every student will know the exact benefit of every element of this project.
Offline Lectures
We always focus on conceptual learning. Learning science is more effective and useful if the concept is understood more practically keeping the topics and experiment in mind. We had arranged offline lectures where our science teachers used to explain the deep concept behind the experiments, Origami activities and career guidance have helped students to choose a right path in career.
Teacher’s Training
We organized a two-day residential training camp in Mysore for at least one teacher from each school and the cluster head. A well-known academician who developed the Muni International method of education Mr. Ashok Thakur, and well-known trainer and Speaker Mr. Chetan Ram mentored all teachers. During this training, teachers from targeted rural schools learned innovative teaching methods and 21st-century life skills that they can apply to their regular teaching. To aid them further, we provided a free online platform with access to the latest learning tools, animated education content, and assessment platform for teachers and students. The teachers were thrilled to be a part of this training and expressed their gratitude to Synopsys and Tare Zameen Par team for this opportunity.
Virtual Lectures
We also arranged the lectures over ZOOM. Some schools don’t have a projector and internet facilities. We discussed with teachers to form groups of students and give them their smartphones to attend the zoom lectures. This went well and it could help us to keep in their touch to solve any problem related to science kits.
Our Goals
1. Importance of Rural Education : In India, education in the rural segment is not only important to eradicate poverty and illiteracy, but also for a variety of other social, economic as well as cultural and political reasons.Â
2. Schools in Rural India: Â Eighty-seven per cent of the schools in India are in the country’s villages. Government statistics and independent surveys have revealed that over 90 per cent of the rural schools at elementary level are run by the government.
4.Challenges in Learning Science: Â Science can be learned better practically. But the government run schools from rural areas are not able to provide the quality education. They do not have a well-equipped lab, a good teacher, the access of latest technologies. Even they find it very difficult to go and visit the Science centres that are located in metro cities.
