34th Annual Report (2021-22)

92 Special programs for teachers were arranged virtually on 28-29th August 2021 for the teachers inMaharashtra and from4- 5th September 2021 for teachers across India. While IOTT was held completely in Marathi, INLOTT had English as the language of communication. Nearly 500 teachers participated in thisworkshop fromall over IUCAA Online Teachers Trainings - State (IOTT) and National (INLOTT) level A couple of 2-Day Workshops on Zero Shadow Day were co-organized by Inter- University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, VigyanPrasar, and ASI POEC ZSD Educators' Workshop – 01 – 02 May and 08 – 09 May 2021 TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMMES Maharashtra in IOTT and INLOTT was attended by about 700 teachers. The topics covered in the sessions were 'Basic Astronomy' and 'Science at the school level'. Rupesh Labade from the SciPop team coordinated this event. Sessions were conducted by Rupesh Labade, Atharva Pathak, Shivani Pethe and Tushar Purohit. on May 01 - 02 (English) and May 08 – 09 (Hindi). Educators from all across the nation participated in these workshops. The workshopwas coordinated by Samir Tushar Purohit and Maharudra Mate from IUCAA and Sonal Thorve from IISER, Pune conducted a teachers training program for ZP teachers, Udgir region. The astronomy training workshop had 180 teachers from various Tehsils participating. This program was organised by ZP Udgir and Birla OpenMinds international school. Teachers training program - 22nd December 2021 Dhurde. The workshop consisted of sessions on zero shadow day and ways in which one can communicate in the most effectiveways to children. A two-hour virtual teacher training program was also held on 13th July 2021 by Rupesh Labade at the Agastya International Foundation. A total of 400 teachers participated in this training. The National Science Day 2022 , was very thoughtfully chosen to be celebrated on a Sunday to make sure children could attend the sessionwithout sacrificing their schools Celebrating Science! NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY 2022 and tuition. The team organised a virtual tour of the entire IUCAA campus with inbuilt hotspots for pre-recorded lectures, posters and exhibits on various topics. These hotspots were located everywhere around campus which made the experience of online campus visits more realistic and lively. Not letting the third wave affect the enthusiasm of celebrating the traditional science day also known as the “ Open Day “, February 27th, Sunday was when the gates of IUCAA were open to the public, VIRTUALLY ! The entire event was conducted online, allowing students fromnot only the National Science Day 2022 “open day” event online: 27February 2022 country but fromany part of the world to join in the celebrations. To make the experience memorable, the organising team came up w i t h i n t e r e s t i ng a nd i n t e r a c t i v e combinations of online platforms. An entirely virtual tour of the campus, which could also run froma smartphone, and could allow a virtual visitor to look at actual visuals from the campus was created in Kuula. Along with the walkaround, visitors could also view posters and demo videos within the same tour at their own pace. This platform reached more than 20,000 viewers . Thiswas also accompanied by live