GUWAHATI: Vice-Chancellor of Gauhati University Dr Mridul Hazarika today underlined the need for development of scientific thinking and outlook among the common populace through popularisation of science especially among young generation.
Releasing a series of manuals called “Explore and understand your environment, people and their practices” for the VIPNET (Science) Clubs in India, Dr Hazarika said such manuals written in simple language and preferably in local language would go a long way in bridging the gap between what have been achieved and what should have been achieved in respect of science popularisation in the country.
The series of manuals have been published by Society for Socio-Economic Awareness and Environment Protection (SSEAEP), Nagaon, Assam under the sponsorship of Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. There will be distributed among 12000 VIPNET clubs in India.
Addressing gathering, the director of the ASTEC, H C Dutta lauded the effort of the SSEAEP and the VIPNET Club to publish such a lucid series of manuals on topics that are part of our daily life. He said the ASTEC would like to help SSEAEP to publish the series in Assamese for the benefit of the common people in the state.
The series covers some important subject areas which are associated with our daily life irrespective of whether we live in urban areas or in rural environment. The series is designed to strengthen the project based learning approach in the club activities in relation to student members’ curricular learning. It also focuses to help VIPNET club members to observe their surroundings from a different perspective.
Different subject covered in the series are – Land and soil, Water Resources, Weather and Climate, Biodiversity, Our Settlement, Animals we domesticate, Traditional Knowledge System, Traditional Measurement System, Waste to wealth and Your Sky. It is about sky observation, identification of stars in the sky.
It focuses on demystification of myth associated with stars and sky. Includes basic tips for sky observation.
Vigyan Prasar (VP), an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, was set up in 1989 to take on large-scale science and technology popularisation tasks. Vigyan Prasar aims to promote and propagate – as widely as possible – a scientific and rational outlook in the society. VP has established a network of more than 7000 science clubs in the country, called the VIPNET science clubs.
