LUCKNOW: It is a unique experience for the residents of villages of districts like Bulandshahr, Bijnor, of western UP as they embark upon a journey to the world of stars to unravel the mysteries of galaxies and milky ways every afternoon by visiting the astronomy labs, equipped with high-end telescopes set up in the state council schools – both primary and upper primary.
Even after two years of the initiative, the endeavour continues to excite the villagers — school children and elderly — alike. The immediate impact of these Astro labs has been a jump in attendance of students in schools.
The telescope at one such Astro lab in Nizampur village of Bulandshahr has shattered the charm of ‘silver dish,’ which Ram Swarup Bhati, 64, witnesses daily. “It is not as beautiful as it looks in the sky with naked eye, it is rather full of dark craters,” he muses. In another lab, the stars, visible through the telescope even during the daytime, are enough to ignite the curiosity of Sumit, 12, about the mysteries of the space.
Sumit studies in Mukundgarhi village panchayat school of Bulandshahr and is one among many such curious students who hardly miss school because of their astro period, when they are taken to the lab to get a glimpse of celestial bodies.Even women in Mukundgarhi village gather at the astro lab to explore the sky through the telescope every night after winding up their household chores.
As per the then Bulandshahr CDO, Abhishek Pandey, the initiative for setting up astro labs was taken in 2021 in consonance with the New Education Policy of the Central Government. Initially, there was a proposal for setting up 160 such labs in gram panchayats but only 100 have agreed. However, so far, 109
such labs have been established in Bulandshahr.
Each lab, equipped with a telescope, spectrometer, space missions, star charts, panels of the Solar System, virtual reality goggles, and a variety of pedagogical tools and models, related to various scientific hypothesises, used to cost around Rs 2.5 lakh and the funds are managed from UP government’s Operation Kayakalp – a scheme floated to upgrade school infrastructure.
The lab is painted as a celestial object with dark and vibrant coloured walls. Moreover, the ambience reflects the night sky with stars, galaxies, Sun and moon painted all over.“The ambience is such to trigger curiosity about the space sciences among the students and sustain their interest in the aspects of astronomy through experiential learning,” says Savita Chaudhury, the science teacher at the school in Nizampur village.
The endeavour has also been helpful in creating a ‘sense for science’ not only in school children but among adults as well. The teachers in the primary and upper primary schools with astro Labs had to go through a rigorous training sessions. Master teachers’ trainers were chosen to provide training to the other teachers. Furthermore, the Bulandshahr administration collaborated with startup Spark Astronomy of Aryan Mishra, country’s youngest astronomer, as the knowledge partner for a better training process and setting up of labs.
Now, the schoolgirls are aware of the contributions of the likes of Kalapana Chawla and Sunita Willams to the space sciences, drawing inspiration from them and ready to follow their footsteps. Rohit Rana, 13, of class 8 has decided to adopt space research as his career option.
Even the creation of such astro labs in western UP villages has created a buzz even outside the country.
Moved by the endeavour, the British High Commission had donated 35 computers to these labs, processing of streaming data from dozens of telescopes across the world, informs the CDO, Bulandshahr. He also believes that such methods of experiential leads the students to improve upon their vocabulary, communication skills with better insight about the subject.
Tools in lab cost Rs 2.5 lakh
Each lab, equipped with a telescope, spectrometer, space missions, star charts, virtual reality goggles, and a variety of pedagogical tools, models, related to various scientific hypothesises, cost around Rs 2.5
lakh.