National Science Day Celebration
The country celebrates February 28 as National Science Day to commemorate the discovery of Raman Effect. The theme of this year’s celebrations of this event at our Centre is “Science and Technology for specially abled persons”, the topic being selected by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Several programmes were organized in this regard. This included visits to schools based in Bangalore which specifically cater to specially abled students, e.g., Association for Persons with Disabilities, Academy for Severe Handicaps and Autism (ASHA) Charitable Trust. During these visits, spread over a week in February, our researchers interacted with the students as well as the teaching staff to learn about the functioning of these schools and to explore ways where the Centre can contribute in providing additional academic interaction. As a corollary a visit to our Centre by children of four different special schools, Spastics Society of Karnataka, Asha Kiran, Deepika Special School and ASHA was arranged on 22 Febraury 2017. A specifically designed science demonstration tour was the highlight.
The main event culminating these activities was held on 28 February, in which students of B.E.L. high school as well as all the staff & student members participated. The programme was presided over by Prof. G.U. Kulkarni, the Director of the Centre, and included a lecture on “Science of Colour” by Dr. P. Viswanath, a faculty, a science-based skit by CeNS researchers and a compiled video show on specially abled achievers. A Science Quiz show was also held for the members of the Centre. The LitE Gallery, a hall hosting exhibits and hands-on experiments designed for school and college going students, was also inaugurated that day and will be, henceforth, an important component of Centre’s flourishing science outreach programme.
The entire activity was coordinated by a senior faculty, Dr. S. Krishna Prasad. The Centre sincerely thanks Ms. Jayashree Ramesh, Director, ASHA for the copious help in organizing the events with the special schools.
