Pune (Voice news service):- Orchids The International School, one of India’s leading K12 school chains, recently unveiled a ‘Mobile Planetarium’ at its Nigdi branch. It was unveiled in the presence of chief guest Mr. Sanjay Naikade, Administrative Officer, Education Department – PCMC. The school will be stepping up its focus on the astronomy and robotics curriculum and bringing experiential learning into its teaching methodology in the upcoming academic year. The central Astronomy team, which consists of seasoned astronomers and educators, has carefully crafted the Astronomy curriculum. The curriculum maintains a focus on both theoretical and observational astronomy, providing the ideal environment for the development of knowledge and abilities.
Installing and running shows in mobile planetariums aims to impart an understanding of astronomy subjects in an interactive way. Students will watch shows like Satellites, Birth and Death of Stars, Big Bang Theory, and Solar System. This will make learning astronomy far more engaging than simply reading textbooks.
At Orchids’ the astronomy club is called ‘Astoverse’ – it is for students who are highly interested in learning astronomy more elaborately apart from what is taught in the astronomy curriculum. The purpose of this club is to give first-hand exposure to a lot of practical aspects of astronomy, such as telescope handling and advanced sky gazing. One of the aspects of the Astronomy club is also to prepare the students for national-level quizzes and Olympiads. An enhanced learning session includes 20 hours of club engagement per academic year, including AV sessions, demonstrations, home-based activities, projects, discussions, games, training, and competitions.
The school had recently organized the Junior Einstein Competition, which aimed at promoting application-based learning and encouraging budding scientists across the branches.
The winning team of the competition were from the Nigdi branch, which had designed a Portable solar water Desalinator model. Many students displayed their projects at the school in front of the chief guest and won his appreciation. The event proved to be an apt platform for young minds to showcase their talent and passion for science and technology.
Speaking about this development, Mr. Sanjay Naikade, Administrative Officer, Education Department – PCMC, “It was an amazing effort by the curriculum designing team and teachers at Orchids The International School to give so much focus on experiential learning programs. Astronomy and Robotics programs in school can promote scientific thinking abilities in students and improve their understanding of the laws of science through gaining visual experience from planetarium sessions and hands-on learning through star gazing trips.”
Romita Sharma, Principal of Orchids The International School, Nigdi, said, “At Orchids, we are always striving to teach through practical methods and providing experiential learning. Apart from parents, even students are increasingly looking for unique learning experiences. Therefore we decided to design and launch a specialized Astronomy curriculum for this academic year, providing students with more hands-on learning. The mobile planetarium set-up is done in that direction. Our focus is to enhance and amplify the learning experience of our students through the Astronomy and Robotics curriculum. This will also be in line with the objective of the National Education Policy implementation. We are confident
that our bright students will excel in the field of Astronomy and will bring honour to the school.”
