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encouraged students from 30 rural schools, who competed at the venue generously provided by the Shasakiya Tantraniketan (ITI), Manchar. A lot of help also came from the IUCAA Girawali Observatory staff, Nilesh Pokharkar alongwith others. On February 22, 2020, about 380 students from 54 schools in Pune city responded to IUCAA’s invitation and participated in another set of inter-school competitions. Students from classes VIII to X took part in the drawing, essay, poetry and science quiz competitions, with the first round of model making competitions. Manojendu Choudhury (ACE, IUCAA) gave an interactive talk to the teachers, who accompanied the students. After the finals of the quiz competition, all winning students received their prizes from Somak Raychaudhury, which included the students from the rural schools, who were specially invited to IUCAAfor a visit that day. All the students were enthused and also very happy to have a chance to interact with the IUCAAscientists during these National Science Day celebrations. Shortlisted models made by school students on a theme, ‘Space - the new frontier for humanity’ , chosen by coordinators, Suresh Doravari, Manasadevi P. T. and Shivaraj Kandhasamy were exhibited on the National Science Day for visitors. The final judging was also done on the same day with the help of Smita Chaturvedi (Savitribai Phule Pune University). The winning teams received their prizes from Somak Raychaudhury in the presence of Jayant Narlikar. Al l the publ i c t a lks and Ask a Sc i ent i s t sess ion w e r e s t r e a m e d l i v e a n d a r e a v a i l a b l e a t : https://www.youtube.com/iucaascipop. A special walk- through of the National Science Day at IUCAAwas made by Ishan Shinde with the help of ShashankTarphe. No. 122 - April 2020 5

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