The Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) partnered with the American India Foundation (AIF) to launch the ‘Sparkle Series’ – an online interactive STEM education program for 11th grade Vigyan Jyoti scholars of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) across the country.
The Vigyan Jyoti Program of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, aims to increase the participation of women in STEM fields through targeted interventions during the early years of education. In line with the schedule, IITGN’s ‘Sparkle Series’ aims to popularize STEM among young girls.
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The nine-episode series is expected to reach approximately 10,000 Vigyan Jyoti girl students in 200 JNVs in 200 districts of 34 states and union territories across the country. The ‘Sparkle Series’ will be streamed live on IITGN’s Center for Creative Learning (CCL) YouTube channel, starting January 22, every Saturday from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM, which will feature sessions on math, science and computational thinking.
Funded by IBM India, the online program will take participants beyond the routine curriculum-based science education and help them build a scientific temperament and enthusiasm. The interactive sessions in this series will be based on Science and Mathematics curriculum themes, but they will consist of different activities using simple materials such as paper, vegetables, playing cards, musical instruments, different types of whistles, bicycles, etc.
“The idea is to help them discover the inherent beauty of these subjects and develop a sense of wonder with various hands-on projects, activities and open questions,” the institute says.
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Prof Manish Jain, head of CCL, IITGN, elaborated on the aims of this series, saying: “Traditionally, a career in STEM is not something many women pursue and as a result, as a society, we are losing the contributions of some of our brightest. We are very excited to partner with JNV, AIF and IBM to get schoolgirls addicted to science and math, primarily by making STEM subjects engaging and inspiring.The focus will be on showing how math/science relates lives with us. In this series, we will explore the inherent beauty of math and science curriculum topics through engaging and interesting activities, hands-on projects, historical stories, and open-ended questions.”
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