Khagol_115

School Students’ Summer Programme and Astronomy Camp No. 115 - July 2018 06 The annual School Students’ Summer Programme andAstronomy Campwere held at IUCAA, during April 23 - June 1, 2018. Altogether, one hundred eighty students of classes 8, 9 and 10, were selected and invited to the six-week event at IUCAA’s Muktangan Vidnyan Shodhika (MVS). These students were grouped into six different batches, each batch started on Monday and continued till Friday. The aim was to introduce the basics of a s t r onomy , and demon s t r a t e hand s - on experiments. One of the key objectives was tomake students learn how to think scientifically, instead of blindly following the textbooks or other resources. In the basic astronomy sessions, students learned interesting lessons, like, different scales of the universe, details about the solar system, reading sky-maps, etc. Role-plays for the Earth-Moon system made the students to understand the phases of the Moon, and solar and lunar eclipses. The demonstrations on optics made the students to experience and realize the behaviour of light when it interacts with different media. Working principle of different telescopes was one of the most enjoyed sessions by students. Hands-on astronomy sessions included making of an angle measurer, a CD spectroscope, a solar camera using pin-hole principle, etc. There were three experiments designed to improve the experimental skills of the students. These were: (i) measuring the diameter of a mustard seed, (ii) finding the height of the Samrat Yantra at IUCAA using trigonometry, and (iii) determining the ratio of Sun’s distance from the Earth to the diameter of the Sun using a solar camera made by the students. Apart from the standard methods, each student was allowed to come up and perform their own method to solve the given problem. This encouraged the students to think about the different ways to carry out an experiment. Students also learned about the limitations of different methods, and error factors. IUCAA Research Scholars, namely, Pratik Dabhade, Bhaskar Biswas, Sunil Choudhary, Kaushal Sharma, Swagat Mishra, and Debabrata Adak provided able guidance and valuable time, and volunteered to guide batches of 3 - 6 students, on focussed scientific projects. The students worked with their guides throughout the week on their projects, ranging fromthe study of nature of