Gone are the days when kids were sent to enjoy their summer vacations at their relatives’ house or for a long vacation at a chill place away from the Mumbai heat. These days, parents want to keep their children busy with activities that will give them knowledge beyond the textbooks and the classroom. 

Nehru Planetarium has announced workshops spread over a period of 40 days. These workshops will be based on scientific trainings for school children. All the ten workshops are intended to provide practical scientific knowledge that children study in their textbooks. Subjects like astronomy, speed of light, biology, kitchen chemistry, electricity and magnetism and handy knowledge about the heat and sound are only some of the topics that will be covered.

“The idea is to organise practical sessions for science enthusiasts to offer them a more hands on experience. It goes beyond the surface learning happening through their science syllabus in schools,” says Karishma Dhanmeher, a representative at the Nehru Planetarium. “In the astronomy session, we will be providing a telescope so that students can see planets and the entire solar system. They will be shown how the radius and weight of planets are calculated,” she adds. 

The planetarium was established in 1977 with the sole aim of imparting knowledge of space and science to students and anyone interested in knowing the universe beyond. The planetarium has been making learning astronomy a pleasant experience.  It also has grown into a centre for the scientific study of astronomy and for a meeting of scientists and scholars for discussions and lectures, arranged periodically on various stellar and astronomical events. The programmes conducted here are aimed at inspiring students. These include science quiz contests, astro-painting, science elocution, astro-poetry and astro-quiz competitions. Nehru Planetrium also makes special arrangements to watch, study and photograph solar and lunar eclipses as well. Telescopes are installed outside the Planetarium to enable eager visitors to watch these regular       activities.

 Summer vacation workshop for school children will start from April 17 to June 9. Workshop is conducted for the students of classes 8 to 10. The seats have been limited to 20 numbers by the institution to deliver the quality training. There will be no charges for the participants however the selection of the candidate will be on first come first serve basis. Each participant will be given a certificate of completion at the workshop culmination on June 9 to keep the students motivated and explore more about the space and science.

The participants will also be taught various scientific topics such as sound generation; calculation of speed and sound, the fluctuations and various mediums of heat.