Ask any young student, and he/she will tell you that experiential learning is always fun and often is more educative than staid textbooks. This is true especially when it comes to science; hands-on experiments help children understand the practical realities of the scientific concepts they are learning about. However, science labs and facilities are not available in many schools, especially those in remote areas which are attended by children from low income groups.
Ramji Raghavan’s Bangalore-based Agastya Foundation, started in 1999, is changing the way underprivileged children learn about science.
The Foundation’s facilities
With 55 science centers, 144 mobile science labs, 77 mobile lab programmers and a 172 acre campus in Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh, the Foundation’s mission is not only to help children learn about scientific concepts, but also to nurture their curiosity. The non-profit venture keeps innovating and developing new programs that challenge the creativity and curiosity of its students.
Raghavan’s desire to work in the field of rural education and help bring science to the masses that led to him creating the Foundation. Today, the Kuppam campus has well-equipped labs for physics, chemistry, botany, math, robotics, spiritual gardens, playground, art and culture facility and a discovery lab similar to the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
The campus receives around 500 children from neighbouring rural schools every day, who are not charged anything for the visits. To meet this demand, the foundation has 800 teachers, including 280 night-school volunteers, and most of them instruct children in the local language. Additionally, it facilitates a peer-to-peer learning model, training children to teach science to their peers.
VK Aatre, a trustee of Agastya Foundation, in an Economic Times interview stated, “Even if Agastya fails to teach them science, it is worth it because it gives the children confidence.” We couldn’t agree more.
To learn more about the Foundation, visit their site or their Facebook page.
Written by Anisha Kashwani
Featured image source: Agastya Foundation (Facebook)
