Pi Day 2016

22nd July of every year is celebrated as Pi Day in India (22nd July written as 22/7 is the approximate value of Pi). 22nd July is also referred to as Pi Approximation Day.

Pi Day program inaugurated by students

Vijnana Vahini celebrated the Pi Day at Government High School, B Matakere on 23rd July 2016 with the support of the Vijnana Vedike. As a part of the celebrations, 195 students from 16 schools participated in 5 games and a quiz program.

All the students participated in at least of the competitions and their performance added to the overall score of the school. The games played by the students were - chowkabara, minus * minus, factors & multiples, aligulimane and mathematica tic-tac-toe. The games were graded in terms of the difficulty (better performance in tougher games fetched more marks).

Minus * Minus

Factors & Multiples

Aligulimane - a mathematical game popular in the local community

The Maths Quiz conducted by Mr. Harsha and Mr. Satisha (both members of Vijnana Vedike and now working in Government Schools in Nanjangud taluk) was very interesting and was appreciated by all. 4 schools selected through a written round had the opportunity to participate in the finals.

Mathematica Tic-Tac-Toe

Maths Quiz in progress

Enough opportunities were created for the participation in the oral quiz for the teachers and the audience through the displays arranged outside the hall.

Mr. Hanamanth T (Maths & Science teacher, GHS B Matakere and coordinator of the program) giving the prizes

Government High School Beechanahalli won the rolling trophy for the 2nd consecutive year with 185 points with a good performance across all the games and also being a finalist in the quiz.

Students of GHS Beechanahalli receiving the award

School wise score card

The entire program was organised with the support of the GHS B Matakere team and members of the Vijnana Vedike. The teachers were the referees for all the games.

The program was organised with the financial assistance of ASHA for Education, Boston Chapter.

March 29 - Sir John Robert Vane

March 28 - Jerome Isaac Friedman

March 27 - Wilhelm Roentgen

What is Erdos Number?

Paul Erdos

What is Sudoku?

All of us like solving puzzles.. Sudoku is high up among our favorites (even if we don't like mathematics). Ever wondered how did the Sudoku evolve? Where are the roots?

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Vijnana Vahini at 103rd Indian Science Congress

The 103rd Indian Science Congress was held at the University of Mysore from 3rd to 7th January 2016. The Indian Science Congress is an annual event where thousands of national / international delegates including Nobel laureates, eminent scientists, policy makers, innovators and academicians converge. The focal theme for the event was "Science & Technology for Indigenous Development in India".

As a part of the event, the Pride of India Expo was also organized to showcase cutting edge technologies and R & D across various streams of science. The Department of IT, BT and S & T of the Government of Karnataka was one of the major exhibitors at the Expo which witnessed a footfall of around 2 lakhs.

Games based on simple mathematical operations being explained to students

SVYM was one of the participants under the Department of S & T. SVYM showcased the Vijnana Vahini and Premavidya projects at the expo.

Science Quiz in progress

SVYM also conducted the "Science Quiz" on all the days for the delegates and the visitors on behalf of the Department. The quiz attracted a large audience and 8 quizzes were conducted during the 5 day event.

From school students to research scholars, every one was an active participant

In addition to the Q & A, the quiz included hands-on experiments, audio-visual questions, crossword, riddles and mathematical puzzles.

The Department of IT, BT and S & T was awarded the "Most Interactive Pavilion" by the organizers. 

Other participants in the pavilion were the Pilikula Regional Science Centre, Mangaluru, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, K-BITS, KEONICS, KSRSAC and Agastya Foundation.

Vijnana Mela 2016

Vijnana Mela - the annual science exhibition held at taluk level with the support of the Education Department for the High School students (8th to 10th std) of both Government and Private schools was conducted at Saragur on 29th January 2016.

The exhibition was a platform for 65 participating teams with innovative science models. The quality of the models has consistently increased from the first edition. Now, the models are no longer expected to be only based on the curriculum (a change from the times when teachers would support only if it improved SSLC pass percentage).

The Most Innovative Model award was bagged by the students from GHS Saragur (Girls), Viveka School of Excellence and GHS Mullur for the models on Global warming, Solar Furnace and Laser microscopy respectively.

Additionally, the students who explained the models and were able to answer the questions of the students, teachers and the jury were also awarded the prizes for being the Best Explainers. The prize was bagged by the students from GHS Katte Hunsur, Adichunchunagiri School and JSS Saragur.

In addition to the students' models, spaces were created for the maths and science clubs of the schools to display the monthly wall posters prepared by the students and the teachers. Additionally, the science teachers were also given an opportunity to exhibit and share ideas on the various projects / activities done under the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). 7 schools participated in this section with GHS Mullur winning the prize for the Best Wall Poster series as well as the Best CCE Activities School.

Students from 5 Government Higher Primary Schools (with 8th standard, called as the TGT schools) also participated in the program. Overall, 128 students and 30 teachers participated in the program with over 1000 students visiting the Mela from the nearby schools. The event was a success with higher participation as compared to the last year and we aim to further increase it next year with better models.

The event was supported by ASHA for Education, Oracle, Karnataka Science & Technology Promotion Society (KSTePS) and Swaralayam Arts Forum.

January 24 - Birthday of Dan Shectman

Rachana 2 - Teachers Training Program at CTE, Mysuru

On 21st January 2016, Vijnana Vahini was invited to conduct a 4 hour session for over 110 science teachers of the Government High Schools of Mysuru district. The 5 day workshop was focused on the curriculum of 9th standard.

Team 1A - enlisting the activities possible with the materials they had

The 4 hour session was divided in to 3 parts. All the teachers were divided into 10 teams. In the first part, the teachers were asked to participate in a quiz which has 21 questions commonly asked by teachers and students and the answers for which are not available in our textbooks. The teachers were encouraged to refer to books and use the internet on their mobile phones to search for answers. This was a new experience for all!

Lots of discussions and arguments in this group

One of the teachers later shared that she now felt empowered to know that the answers to most of the questions were accessible through her mobile. During the second part, the answers to all these questions were discussed with the teachers.

During the third part in the evening, the teams were provided with lab equipment and materials. The materials available was carefully planned so as to seem to less but yet be sufficient to do over a 100 experiments /activities. 

Within the stipulated time, the teams were challenged to conduct and later demonstrate the activities to the other teams. The entire CTE campus was abuzz with activities (a rare sight!).

Each team later presented their set of activities. The day ended with a lot of excitement among the teachers and a belief that most of these activities were possible in their schools, within the resource limited settings.

Team presenting their ideas at the end

Praveen addressing the teachers after the session

Mr. Kollegala Sharma, a popular science writer, senior scientist at CFTRI and an active member of the Vijnana Vedike Kote (ViVeK) also addressed the teachers on 20th January. The topic he chose was properties of blood.

It was also heartening to know that many of the teachers, though not from HD Kote taluk, were aware of the discussions of ViVeK on WhatsApp. The word is spreading!

The following are the details of the next training session by Vijnana Vahini -

Date & Time - 28th January 2016, 2pm to 5:30pm

Topic - Mathematics

Venue - CTE, Mysuru