Friday, September 12, 2014

Workshop for school teachers on Science at B. M Birla science centre

Following are my reflections for a 7 hrs workshop for school teachers on Science at B. M Birla science centre on 9/9/2014.
The session started with the visit to the science museum.
Interactive session in Science Museum: by Mr.Ch Kishore Kumar was very useful and highly recommended for students of grade 8 onwards. Many difficult concepts could be explained by showing different setups. Mr.Ch Kishore Kumar took us to the amazing world of science especially, physics explaining the different theories and phenomenon by simple assemblies. He demonstrated concepts following setups:
Fun mirrors, Deceptive warmth, Invisible string, See sounds, Laser, See heat
Climbing park
Resonance: sympathetic swing
Gears
Pulleys and belts
Corner cube
Ballistic missile
Centrifugal force assembly
Conversion of energy: mechanical energy to electrical and kinetic to potential energy n vice versa
Use of angular momentum
Demonstration of friction
Pendulum motion: showing sine wave
Archimedes principle
Pythagoras theorem 
Optical illusion, Antigravity cone: concept of centre of mass ,to name a few
Later we had Curriculum based interaction discussing the above setups.
Later we Visited Observatory: Situated on the sixth floor of the museum, the sky watching could be done conveniently and effectively by a fully computerised telescope.
We also visited Planetarium for a sky show followed by visit to Dynosaurium which has fossilised dinosaur from places around Hyderabad and Nalgonda.
Later we were introduced to a very dynamic personality, Mr. Praveen Kumar Gorakavi a young scientist, an inventor and former child prodigy.
Praveen innovations span multiple scientific fields. He started his scientific sting.  At an age of 13, he has developed mathematical formula for perpetual calendar calculation, which also mentions historic dates observed on various types of calendars. He is recognized as a young polymath for his innovations in diverse fields of science and engineering. At an age of 15 years, he designed a low-cost artificial leg with an ability for knee and ankle movement. He has also developed a missile technology using wax in his school project, at an age of 15. Praveen is youngest recipient of one of the highest civilian awards of Andhra Pradesh state, Ugadi Gaurav Puraskar, from state government of Andhra Pradesh. Praveen is also considered as the youngest recipient of the FAPCCI award 'Outstanding Engineer/Scientist for the state of Andhra Pradesh'. He has developed a low-cost products for water purification, food storage, and biocatalyst for conversion of cotton to bioethanol. Praveen has recently designed a low-cost mechanical brailler(cost Rs 3000/ against 1.5 lac)- to increase braille literacy in the developing world. He is currently pursuing P.hD on Upcoming trends in solar energy encapsulation, which covers the 70% use of solar radiation for solar power as well as solar thermal use. Currently, Praveen is working on hybrid solar energy encapsulation technology, involving solar spectrum bifurcation and subsequent concentration, as a part of doctoral studies.
Praveen received the award ‘Outstanding Engineer/Scientist for the year 2009-10’ from FAPCCI and is considered to be the youngest recipient of this award. Earlier to this, Praveen received India’s prestigious award ‘Balshree’ from President of India. He received one of the highest civilian awards of Andhra Pradesh state, Ugadi Gaurav Puraskar, from state government of Andhra Pradesh. With all these feathers in his cap, Praveen is a very modest person and has agreed to come to our school as a guest lecturer. I was personally very impressed by Praveen and would highly recommend to invite him to school so that our children get motivated.






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