{"id":2862,"date":"2020-11-01T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2025-06-09T07:12:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T07:12:40","slug":"life-changing-experiences-through-iia-outreach-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/?p=2862","title":{"rendered":"Life-changing experiences through IIA Outreach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Megha<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many, I joined IIA with lots of dreams and passion. Along with mastering the subject, I always wanted to contribute to society in whatever way possible. While I was not quite sure how I could proceed with this dream, the IIA Outreach program came in front of me like a boon. Along with my batch-mates, I attended my first outreach meeting in the “Bhaskara telescope room” (a small but inspiring meeting \/ extracurricular activities room in our hostel terrace) conducted by our seniors. We had a glimpse of how to teach astronomy basics to school kids through handmade astronomy kits, followed by identifying constellations in the light-polluted Bengaluru sky. That is how I started my journey in IIA Outreach. This meeting was very stimulating as its motto was to inspire underprivileged school kids towards basic sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a junior, I observed my seniors who were very good at explaining science in layman language to the kids through small experiments, activities, and beautiful presentations. Being a local language (Kannada) speaking person, I could quickly bond and interact with Kannada medium school kids. While trying to explain the concepts to them, I understood that I could do this very well, and I really enjoyed doing it. We always planned what to present such as a general talk on introductory astronomy, demonstration of astronomy kits, or observing through a telescope. However, every time we made an effort to improvise on this by conducting new group activities and some exciting physics experiments, which are easier enough for the kids to repeat on their own. Therefore, every new Outreach allowed us to push ourselves farther to adopt a novelty in our approach. This led to numerous brainstorming sessions, which were very refreshing and connected us with our basic science roots. More than what we taught, we gained immense knowledge and insight from the countless fascinating questions posed by the inquisitive young minds. Therefore, each school Outreach session became a powerful platform for learning, understanding, and improving the group working spirit. It enhanced our weekend productivity, providing a welcoming break to our mundane life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      While participating in Outreach events, we connected with inspiring personalities like Mr. Sridhar P., an IISc graduate. He devoted himself to the “Akshara Foundation” to teach computers and robotics in the local Government schools. These kids, who initially did not even know how to switch on a computer or speak in English, are now able to build their robots under their teacher’s guidance. It was very satisfying to know that his efforts paid off through his students’ national and international level award-winning performances. We also met Dr. Gajanana Birur, an IISc alumnus and a Principal Engineer in the Mechanical Engineering Division at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also worked on the Mars Curiosity Rover project. He has adopted several government schools in his village, and a few in Bengaluru. He is currently working on improving those schools by collaborating with “Teach For India” fellows. He was immensely enthusiastic during our interaction and provided inspiration for enhancing and extending our Outreach plans. We were driven by his energy and dedication towards propagating science education to the underprivileged students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interactions with many such eminent personalities sprouted an idea of organising a Teacher Training Program (TTP) by few Outreach enthusiasts at IIA. This event aimed to invite about 50 teachers, primarily from Government schools, to cover basic science concepts through presentations and elaborate hands-on sessions using everyday household items. In this way, skilled teachers could further motivate their students, enabling us to reach more students through each teacher, snowballing our efforts of spreading knowledge in every nook and corner of society. Our first TTP took place in June 2017 at IIA main campus. The enthusiasm of teachers even drove us to skip lunch break and engage in discussions. The program was a great success because they accompanied their students to attend our next National Science Day celebration. They identified some of us and eagerly introduced to their students, remarking that we were the ones who presented them with some exciting experimental ideas. Along with the students, teachers also noted down the steps of our new science experiments to recreate them for those who could not attend that event. I was awestruck by these responses, which drove me again to participate in our next TTP, taking place in September 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Outreach enthusiasts in an informal meeting with Dr. Gajanana Birur at Bhaskara Guest House, IIA, October 2019.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Government School teachers with Outreach team during TTP, June 2017 at IIA main campus.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I also participated in a few Solar and Lunar eclipses events to educate the crowd regarding the prevalent superstitious beliefs practised during an eclipse. One of the most significant Lunar eclipse events (a super blue blood moon) was held at Lalbagh, Bengaluru, by the IIA Outreach team on January 31, 2018. We interacted with a vast audience consisting of children to senior citizens. Though it was tiring, at the end of the day, we were so satisfied that we could convince a few audience members to reject some superstitious beliefs. As it is easy to preach and hard to practice, I am also content that I could positively influence my closed family members to get rid of superstitious practices during an eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another unforgettable experience was an Outreach event at Snehagram, a vocational training and rehabilitation centre for HIV positive kids, situated in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. Their program has a facility to accommodate about 200 children, who are provided with academic learning opportunities and developing life skills and values to lead a responsible social life. Honestly, I was a bit sceptical about joining the Outreach team for this event because of my own prejudices. But I wanted to come out of my mental barrier by actively participating in this event. This decision led to an eye-opening experience, giving me an entirely new perspective towards the HIV affected community. We interacted on astronomy, demonstrated few optics experiments, and had a pleasant sky-watching session with them. They posed challenging questions to us, also including a discussion on life and beyond. We learned about their daily routines, classes, healthcare, diet, etc. from their caretakers. We shared a lovely dinner with them, sitting side-by-side, savouring the fresh vegetables and dairy, nurtured by them with love and affection. Those kids were physically fit and hardworking, eager to learn new things, and filled with life skills, which most of us lack. At the end of the day, they taught us to live our lives to the fullest. During our journey back to Bengaluru, none of the team members could speak. Yet, our silence spoke about everything we experienced that weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not participate in all the outreach activities during my stay due to workload, but the ones in which I had been involved never left me without valuable life lessons. I will always carry these beautiful experiences with me. I heartily thank all the IIA Outreach team members who helped me grow as a person during my PhD days.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Outreach team with Seva Bharath Trust Government Higher Primary School, Bengaluru, August 2015. This school has a Robotics lab funded by the Akshara Foundation<\/em>.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Megha Like many, I joined IIA with lots of dreams and passion. Along with mastering the subject, I always wanted to contribute to society in whatever way possible. While I was not quite sure how I could proceed with this dream, the IIA Outreach program came in front of me like a boon. Along with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[32,95,91,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3205,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/3205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}