The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar hosted a two-day Science Camp for two Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar under the Gujarat region of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) as a part of the DST-Vigyan Jyoti Initiative on January 8 and 9, 2024. A total of 91 high school and higher secondary school girl students attended the residential event along with four teachers of JNVs.
The aim of this camp was to provide these students with an opportunity to go beyond the limits of school, develop their experimental, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, and inspire them to pursue their curiosity and creativity in science. Over the two days, the students were engaged in a plethora of exciting activities, including science experiments, visits to the world-class labs, interaction with eminent faculty and scientists at IIT Gandhinagar, activities by Center for Creative Learning - IIT Gandhinagar (CCL-IITGN), yoga, sports, and so on, which allowed them to be part of the exciting student life at IITGN.
The lab session on the first day covered visits to the Physics, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering labs at IITGN, wherein students were engaged in various kinds of experiments and hands-on practical experience. They also immersed themselves in various amusing experiments during a session with the Centre for Creative Learning that sparked their curiosity to learn Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) with fun. Later in the evening, Odyssey, the Astronomy club of the institute, organised a planet observation and star-gazing session for girl students.
On the second day, the participants got an opportunity to interact with eminent faculty of the institute as well as some visiting scientists who delivered insightful talks on various topics, ranging from what is Cancer to Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein to various research by NASA. The students were very excited to listen to these interesting talks and participated enthusiastically in the question-and-answer session.