With a mission to motivate students to take up Science as a subject in higher classes and to arouse their interest, a unique mobile science bus has been launched. It is equipped with state-of-the-art research and practical-lab facilities that can help students to perform practical exercises which are part of their course curriculum. The Science bus project is an initiative of Government of India’s Mobile Science Exhibitions (MSE) mission, and is a joint effort of Chandigarh University, Gharuan, and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Worth Rs one crore, the science bus aims at covering all schools across the union territory of Chandigarh. The bus will be led by a team of 20 faculty members including national awardee Dr Jaswinder Singh (science expert), with 4 research scientists from Chandigarh University.
How will it help students?
It will showcase projects and help students perform more than 150 experiments up to Class 12 in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology along with providing information about various devices, tools, and developments in the field of science. The bus carries additional kits for students to perform experiments. There is provision for a multimedia projector screen for conducting experiments in a group.
There are some government schools in the periphery of Chandigarh where practical knowledge is almost zero as laboratory infrastructure is still developing, and hence, the Science Bus designed by the Chandigarh University will reach at their doorstep.
The Department of Education, Union Territory of Chandigarh, will also help in this project by sending their teachers on training of new technology so that they are equipped with the skills which are needed to teach the students.
Inaugurating the bus, UT Adviser to Administrator Dharam Pal said, “This Science Bus will become a milestone in school education and learning as it will reach out to so many students”.
