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About Us

We all learn best when we do, make, explore. Pull things apart, put them back together. Our current system, competitive and fast-paced environment however, seldom provides space for such learning. The purpose of this initiative is to provide a space where learning can be joyous, experiential, leading to conceptual understanding. With our outreach activities we intend to create scientific temper and nurture inherent creativity in larger population.

Hands-on Teachers Workshops.

Our experience doing the teachers workshops has been overwhelming. Our focus will be to scale such workshops so that we can reach out to teachers of other states also. State of Gujarat, Bihar, Chattisgarh and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan(KVS) have shown keen interest and want us to work with their teachers. We want to do dissemination workshops for large number of teachers. Out of those workshops we would work with a smaller number of teachers to build the capacity of master trainers.

Student Workshops

We would conduct weekly workshops for children of local schools of Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and neighbouring districts. These would be half day, free workshops for a group of 50-100 children, teachers. The idea is to expose them to joy of science and alternate method of learning.

Tinkering/Modelling workshops

Lego Technic and Zometool are great tools enabling quick functional models prototypes. This I believe can provide a really creative outlet for the engineering skills. We just need to provide some space, material and few workshops to get started. Lego workshop at FP this year was very well received.

Curriculum Consultation

Whenever relevant, we can provide activities that can be incorporated in an undergraduate classroom for the courses that are already being taught on campus. 14 Bravais Lattice, crystal structures, structural geometry, Mechanics, FY Physics and Math courses. The classic Braess’ Paradox, a standard topic in an introductory Game Theory/Mechanism Design course, has a physical manifestation with springs and weights

Activities, Exhibits, Models, Toys

We will spend a significant amount of time to content that can be interesting and educational value. It would be simple to make and exploration would lead to conceptual understanding. There is a great need to create elegant toys which in our gift shop communicate the ethos of the place. Geometrical structures/sculptures, jaw dropping exhibits (levitating water, paper, pen) and physical block games (tetris, outboxed) can help enliven the campus.

Communicating Research via Films

There is a great need to engage with the general populace and communicate the research. While most of this gets published in the journals, it is out of reach of general public. We will make short animated films so that we can reach out in the medium that people can understand and relate to.

Conceptual Science Films

We will make short videos explaining concepts behind our toys/models, not-well-known or often-misunderstood concepts. We expect to cover a wide range of themes with an initial focus on the physical sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, economics, computer science).

Science Outreach

We would involve the faculty and students to write in local dailies, organize monthly popular science talks in the city. The idea will be to generate excitement and generate scientific temperament in our society.

Why We Do?

“When I show those toys and share these surprises with people, often they say ‘Oh, it’s wonderful, because you take difficult science and simplify it!’ That’s well meant, of course, but that’s exactly what I’m trying not to do. All the things that you’re seeing here are surprising for scientists and children alike. All you have to do is look at nature with some imagination and perseverance and you can identify — sometimes, if you’re lucky — pockets of mystery. These toys come from those pockets of mystery that surprise all of us equally.”- Dr. Tadashi Tokieda