Pune: In order to take easy science learning to school children and citizens, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has expanded its 'science park,' which is now located at the department of environmental science building.
The science park will be inaugurated on the National Science Day celebrated on February 28. It will be open to the public from 10 am to 5 pm.
The science park in the university was started three years back, however, due to less availability of space, the department would only host exhibitions for school children and the public. The present science park hosts around 300-350 experiments, which are on display, while there are some do-it-yourself experiments for school students.
“The idea of this science park is learning through play, by experimenting and exploring and observing and deriving experiments. The purpose is to teach basic scientific laws and principles and its application in daily life in simple form and through fun activities so that children find serious lessons easy to learn,” said Dilip Kanhere, founder of the science park at SPPU.
The department has been organising summer science camps for school children where they learn and experiment on various scientific theories through fun activities. So far, around 600 school children have benefited from the science camp.
The department is also planning to host a science camp to train teachers so as to make teachers aware of the innovative ways of teaching and learning skills. Moreover, the department is soon likely to open the science park for school students once every week for an entire day.
The university has allocated a budget of around Rs 30-35 lakh every year for the science park project. The faculty of science park are waiting for the main building which is under construction near Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). This main building of science park is likely to be completed in next couple of years, informed Kanhere. It will host more new science demonstrations and projects and better facilities.
