Mobile Science Vans flagged off for government school students

Hyderabad : Mobile Science Vans laden with 200 models and 500 science experiments were flagged off here at the Aavishqar Science Fair held at Mahboobia Government Girls High School, Abids, Hyderabad today.

The Mobile Science Vans were flagged off by T. Ravi Kumar, Deputy Education Officer, Nampally; Ms. Rekha Srinivasan, Executive Director, United Way of Hyderabad and Tejaswini, Director (Engineering), Qualcomm India. The vans as part of the project ‘Aqriti’ taken by United Way of Hyderabad in association with Qualcomm India will go around the government schools to showcase the models and experiments and help students better understand and learn science, said Rekha Srinivasan, Executive Director, United Way of Hyderabad. The vans will be made available as Science Labs on Wheels for government schools and will benefit 16,000 students. Aavishqar, an annual science fair which provides underprivileged girls a platform to hone their skills and perspective to thrive in the field of technology was also held. About 268 children from various government schools participated in the Aavishqar Science Fair.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Aavishqar Science Fair, Rekha Srinivasan said that the Aavishqar Science Fair was organized under the initiative ‘Aqriti’ to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education among under-represented girls. The probability of girls choosing STEM related-education is unfortunately bleak. We see that very few girls opt for subjects such as Engineering, Science and Mathematics. To make the government school students especially girls interested in STEM, this initiative has been taken up. The initiative will provide technology based teaching methodology, science labs, libraries and facilities that are not generally available for government schools. This year over 16,000 government students are being benefitted out of which over 8000 are girls from 86 schools in Nampally and Khairatabad Mandals (27 Govt. High Schools and 59 are Primary Schools).

Rekha urged the students to take advantage of the Mobile Science Vans, ask questions and learn from the models and projects on display. 200 models based on NCERT syllabus for upper primary and high school students will be made available. With the help of the teacher lessons will be taught, lab setup and experiments shown and done. We want to setup Science labs in each government school. This year we have started with two mobile science vans which were flagged off today. We plan to launch two science labs this year soon, said Rekha.

Under the Aavishqar Science Fair, three categories of Inter-Government School Competitions were held. A total of 268 participants from 26 government High Schools contested in Model Exhibition, Poster Presentations and Quiz Competition categories.

For the Model Exhibition the themes were Non-Conventional Sources of Energy and Technology. Government High School, Yousufguda bagged the First Prize in the Model Exhibition category. The team from GHS Yousufguda comprising of Arshiya Jabeen, Aliya Begum and Humeira Begum showcased a model on Aquaponics Farming. Apart from the Memento, Certificate and Prizes, the winning team members were given a tab each with learning content.

In the Poster Presentation category, GBHS Sultan Bazaar team comprising of Goverdhan and Vinod bagged the First Prize for their Poster on Air Pollution.

The Science Quiz Competition was won by team from Government High School, Yousufguda comprising of Mohammed Amir, Karthik and Altaf.

Innovation Prize was also given away on the occasion which was bagged by the girls team from Government High School, Yousufguda. Science Experiment Kits were given away to the winning team. Special Prize was won by Mahaboobia Govt. Girls High School with team comprising of Alisha and Amina.