National Science Day Celebration at the Udaipur Solar Observatory
The National Science Day (NSD) was celebrated at the Udaipur Solar Observatory on 14th February, 2018. The NSD organizing team of Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) staff, targeted toward a proactive participation of school students in the celebration. A total of eleven schools participated, where each school was represented by two students of class XI and an accompanying teacher.

For a direct involvement of students in the NSD celebration, the schools were requested in advance to submit an essay (in Hindi or English) on the topic “Solar Physics” for an essay competition.  The schools: Vidyabhawan Senior Secondary School, MaharanaMewar Public School and Delhi Public School stood first,second, and third. Each of them was awarded a certificate of appreciation along with science books as prizes.

The NSD program also had active participation from the USO and PRL members. The participants were welcomed by Prof. Nandita Srivastava who gave a talk on the importance of  National Science Day and highlighted the recent achievements of ISRO. The students and post-doctoral fellows also participated actively. Mr. Ranadeep Sarkar gave an introduction to the Solar Physics. A team of  students led by Dr. Avijeet Prasad conducted a hands-on session using various astronomy kits like sun dials, start clocks and clinometers while Ms. Sushree Sangeeta Nayak gave a presentation featuring Indian women in science. Dr.Bhushit Vaishnav from PRL shared his views on “Science as a career”.

The school students gave oral presentations on the topic “Importance of Science and Technology in Social Development” — of which, the first three were rewarded with books and certificates. The three winners are; Ryan International School, Delhi Public School and Maharana Mewar Public school in descending order of merit. The program was concluded by formally thanking all the participants for their support and interest. Special thanks are also due to Ms. Arpita Agrawal and Mr. Akshay Kumar Suthar for their effort to make the celebration successful.

To popularize astronomy, a night-sky-watch session— using the 14 inch telescope at USO was organized for the participants in the evening session, which was enthusiastically received.

Clockwise from the Top-left: Oral Presentation by a student, Audience during the oral presentation, award Presentation by Prof. Nandita Srivastava, award Presentation by Prof. Shibu K. Mathew, hands-on session on astronomy, and snapshot during the night-sky-watch

 

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