KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
A three-day teacher-training workshop on Astronomy concluded here on Saturday.
The workshop was organized jointly by Kashmir University’s Physics Department and Public Outreach and Education Committee (POEC) of the ASI, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Vigyan Prasar; Navnirmiti Learning Foundation; Science Teachers Association of Kashmir and Directorate of School Education Kashmir, at Kothibagh Higher Secondary School.
50 higher secondary school teachers from all districts of Kashmir, and few teachers from Jammu, participated in the workshop, a KU statement said this evening.
The participant teachers took part in activities conducted by astronomers and science communicators from across India.
They were engaged in hands-on demonstrations in astronomy that can be taught to their students. These included measuring distances and heights using the Sun and measuring the elevation of the Sun. They were also trained in role playing games that can be used to explain the motion of the Sun and the Moon as well as time and seasons.
The teachers then developed their own simple telescopes using very low-cost equipment. They also learned how to use their telescopes to observe the Sun safely. This was in preparation for showing the transit of planet Mercury to students on 9th May.
The training sessions were conducted by Dr T V Venkateswaran and Ms Irfana Begum from Vigyan Prasar; Purushottam Tripathy and Dr Chatterjee from Navnirmiti.
The teachers were also trained in preparing their students for the International Astronomy Olympiads. To encourage more students from J&K to participate in, and qualify for the Astronomy Olympiads, Dr Aniket Sule from HBCSE delivered lectures and organised problem solving sessions to train the teachers to coach their students better.
Another session was organized by Dr Niruj Ramanujam from NCRA-TIFR and Samir Dhurde from IUCAA.
