Prajwal M and Gagal P created a Planetarium

Posted on Tuesday, January 06, 2015 by LEAD



Leader Prajwal M. from NIE First Grade College in Mysore along with his team member Gagan P. came up with an idea of a project called “Cosmic Egg”, inspired by the beauty of the space. Prajwal and his team decided to tell people about common myths, galaxies and the universe. The project has begun with a simple idea to promote scientific knowledge and to erase popular myths like astrology. The project was inspired by the NASA Educational website: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=314. 





Prajwal initially had prepared the hexagon shape planetarium which was a challenge for them to take it to the different schools so the team thought on it and researched to find the alternatives discussing with the mentors in the LEAD Team as he had applied for the Leadership challenge competition organised by LEAD, through which the project has now been shortlisted for Yuva Summit.

LEaders have built a pipe network for planetarium, by realizing that planetarium was not mobile, they accepted a challenge to make a portable planetarium. The procedure to build a planetarium was simple and the project did not take much time for them. Leaders have completed the planetarium in less than 4 days and began to promote their planetarium to governmental organizations and schools for children with disabled people.
Among the main goals and objectives of the project there were:
1.To promote the wonders of the space to governmental organizations and schools for children with disabilities through mobile planetarium.
2. To encourage scientific thinking among young students.
3. To teach students about planetary systems and tell about eclipses and laws of planetary motion from scientific point of view.
4. To prevent superstitious beliefs like Astrology among young students through planetarium show.

Although it was hard to set up a projector for the planetary show and get a permission to arrange the show, leaders were able to share their knowledge with 305 participants.




Prajwal M. and Gagal P. think that innovation and creativity develops curiosity. Experimenting with new things always excites and encourages them to complete some similar projects in the future. Having completed this project, leaders identified some problems in quality of education in village schools. They have realized that some teachers are not familiar with basic concepts in science. 

During their sessions most students asked questions related to astrology and about Saturn’s effect on our life. Leaders have learned many things from this project by explaining and experimenting .They would also like to develop planetarium by making it more interactive to students and would like to reach as many people as possible.

1 Response to "Prajwal M and Gagal P created a Planetarium"

.
Pankaj Says....

Congratulations Prajwal M. and Gagal P.

Pankaj Sharma
9810586990