36th Annual Report (2023-24)

104 Astronomy Centre for Educators Horn Antenna Workshop A workshop on fabricating a horn antenna was organised for teachers by ACE IUCAA from the 3rd to the 6th of April 2023. The resource persons were Avinash Deshpande (IUCAA), Prakash Arumugasamy (IUCAA), Jameer Manur (IUCAA), Ashish Mhaske (IUCAA), Dhruba J Saikia (IUCAA), Neeraj Gupta (IUCAA), Ruta Kale (NCRA), and Bhal Chandra Joshi (NCRA). On the first day, lectures covered the basic principles of antennas, radio astronomy, receiver chain, and observations using the horn antenna and HI observations of the Milky Way galaxy. On the second day participants assembled the horn antenna and tested the receiver chain in the ACE Astro Lab. On the third day participants took the observations of the HI line of the Milky Way galaxy using the horn antenna they had assembled, and also installed the software required for the observations and analyses. These were followed by semi-informal discussion sessions with experts on the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope and radio astronomy techniques and instrumentation. The workshop's hands-on activities included: Assembling the pre-fabricated parts of the horn antenna and its receiver chain; Observing neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) in emission fromthe Galactic plane; Analyzing the data to obtain the Galactic rotation curve. ¬ ¬ ¬ Teaching Learning Centre and Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre Participants seen assembling the horn antenna and working on the electronics A group photograph of the participants of the horn antenna workshop There were 12 participants from different parts of the country who worked together in groups, actively interacting and learning. The participants presented their analysis and results and shared their experiences in a follow-up presentation session held after the workshop on 3rd June 2023. The ACE IUCAA Teamcoordinated theHorn AntennaWorkshop. Workshop on Astronomy-Themed Experiments A workshop on astronomy-themed experiments for faculty members of colleges and universities interested in exploring, creating and sharing laboratory experiments based on concepts in astronomy for teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate levelswas organized from 8th to 12th August 2023 at IUCAA. The long-term goal was to produce an open-source repository of astronomy- themed experiments covering diverse topics. There were about 30 participants from over a dozen institutions presenting a wide range of experiments. The workshop started with a presentation of a very A group photograph of the participants of the Workshop on Astronomy-Themed experiments