Our year coincides with the financial year, i. e. it is from April 01 to March 31 of the next calendar year. Earmarked annual activities and programmes of the Centre are listed in Appendix I. Most of these activities are from the Gujcost guidelines. We have carried out more than 167 activities / programmes during the year 2011-‘12. Through these programmes we have covered about 300 schools, 25 colleges and more than 35, 000//- beneficiaries. Some of our activities have been reported in the news-papers and local news channels, propagating our scientific message to many more people.
Let us mention an important annual programme called ‘Vikram Sarabhai Vijaypadma Vaktrutva Spardhaa’ Elocution competition for the school children of the twin districts of Anand and Kheda. This is a competition on scientific topics, being held every year regularly for the past 32 years on or around December 30. This day is the death anniversary of a prominent Indian Scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the doyen of Indian Space Programmes. The contest is basically organized by Sanskar Mandal, a cultural organization in Vidyanagar, and the CSC has joined as a collaborator since 2005. The competition is organized on a topic of science & Technology, and has evoked such a good response that a written elimination test is required to be arranged to limit the entries to about 20 schools.
Besides this, summer vacation programmes organized during May every year are more informal. Even parents and grand-parents can also join in a playful environment, but the aim is always Science. Astronomy (sky-gazing) programmes are arranged with the help of amateur astronomers like Dr. B. Y. Thakore (Department of Physics SPU) and Prof. Kumarbhai Trivedi (GCET College) here. With Prof. Trivedi we have also prepared a ppt on ‘professional fields of knowledge and career opportunities’ for higher secondary students.
We are continuously in touch with schools of Anand district for the ‘Gujcost Science Club’ activities. Nearly 60 schools have established Gujcost science clubs, as per the objectives of Gujcost -Gandhinagar. We also remain in touch with the Dist. Education Officer – Anand and the District Institute for Education and Training DIET –Valadan Anand for various programmes and activities. Every year we organize at least one introductory seminar on Astronomy astrophysics and planetary-space sciences. This is for the benefit of upper-school students/teachers and college / university students and teachers. Many of the participants come from remote village areas in and around Anand district.
Another important activity for propagation of Science is in the form of theme based posters which we prepare and distribute to schools and colleges. During the last two years, display posters on the following themes were prepared and distributed.
- Indian mathematicians and astronomers; national Year of mathematics (Gujarati & English)
- Famous Indian Scientists (Gujarati)
- Periodic table of elements (International Year of Chemistry 2011)
A small booklet on question-answers on science is also being promoted by this Centre.
Among the important outdoor activities, we must mention the Science Experiment programmes called ‘Vignan Safar’. Under this programmes our Science Communicators visit various schools with experimental kits, models etc, and arrange demo programmes. A 3-day Workshop/Seminar for Mathematics teachers of the Dist. Schools is organized at least once every year. For the past two years we have been organizing Maths Model making competition also for school teachers.
Bal Urja Rakshak Dal BURD is an activity on Energy awareness among school children, and this is sponsored by GEDA Gandhinagar.