Ingersoll Rand partnered with Agastya International Foundation to launch Mobile Science Lab for the economically disadvantaged government school students in remote, rural areas and train teachers from the government schools in hands on pedagogy in Ghaziabad. The science centre was inaugurated at the Government Inter College, Nandgram, Ghaziabad.

Children trained and educated by Agastya International Foundation will get an opportunity to learn and understand the basic science principles through creative science models and interactive demonstrations rather than through rote learning. Each Mobile Science Lab travels to doorstep of remote schools with over hands-on science models covering a wide range of topics in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Math for Class 5 through 10. The teaching approach is consistent with the National Curriculum Framework and the topics overlap the NCERT syllabus. “A Mobile Science Lab typically visits various government schools on a daily basis.  Depending on the strength of the visiting school, a Mobile Science Lab spends anywhere between two and a half to three hours per school. During holidays, the Mobile Science Lab conducts community visits, organizes teacher training workshops and science fairs to create multiple students and teacher exposures,” said Geetanjali Bhatia, Leader Corporate Relations & CSR, Ingersoll Rand India. The Mobile Science Lab will aim to deliver 16,000 children exposures in a year of its operation. Teachers will be trained with an aim to disseminate knowledge and propagate creative-thinking and problem-solving skills among government school teachers. “This is the seventh Mobile Science Lab in India with our partnership. With these projects, our aim is to provide teachers with tools and methodologies to explain concepts creatively and encourage curiosity and promote experiential learning,” said Ratish Pandey, Director North Region, Agastya International Foundation. “With our long term successful partnership with the Agastya Foundation, we are taking steps to bring innovative hands-on science education and learning to the doorstep of government schools and villages across India. Our vision is to spark curiosity and address gaps in the education system, namely absence of questioning and enquiry in the classroom, lack of practical exposure to science concepts and poor teacher-student interaction,” added Bhatia. The Mobile Science Lab will also conduct science fairs and summer camps in which young instructors will be identified and trained to demonstrate science concepts to their peers through peer-to-peer learning.   Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better. Regards, The CSR Journal Team