Come November, all the 32 districts of Tamil Nadu will be gearing up for thematic Science Exhibitions. The exhibitions are part of first-of-its-kind project funded by the Union Government under the Rasthriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan with an outlay of `one lakh per district.
“The exhibition has been funded in an attempt to improve science education at the secondary school level. Each district will conduct its science exhibition on a specific theme. This will be decided by the district officials concerned after going through the projects that are taken up by the schools in that district. The coordinating officers for the RMSA and teachers concerned have been asked to come up with a plan for their district. Science teachers and officers from each district have also being trained for the event,” said a senior official with RMSA.
The exhibition will be held at four levels, starting with the school level and followed by the zonal level, education district level and revenue district level. Schools in the State have begun preparations for the science exhibitions at the school level with a variety of new models.
Around 500 students from the class six and above participated at the school level Science Exhibition that was held at the Jaigopal Garodia Girls Higher Secondary School as part of the project recently. Solar energy models, electricity generation through everything from chemicals to fruits, pollution-free city models, etc., were some of the highlights.
“We hope many of our students will be able to take part in the district level function. Not only did they not manage to make the best within the shortest possible period, but also managed to put together the exhibition on an extremely limited budget,” said Principal of the school, N Sheela Rani.
Under the science exhibitions, the models will be from the areas of physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics. As part of the event, training programmes were held for district coordinators and science teachers from all the districts in Chennai in association with the School Education Department and the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre.