DYAU- A ray of scientific hope for India's next gen!

Our culture has taught us that the child of a blacksmith will be a blacksmith and that of a potter likewise. The incubation of a particular mindset begins early in most families, and further induction eventually drives the children to choose a career line that is aligned with the education background of the family. It is considered safe. The guidance required is always assumed, whether the chid receives it actually or not, is another story. Very rarely do we find a child inclined towards choosing the science stream to pursue education, despite having parents coming from a background of commerce or arts or humanities. That is really where the awareness movement needs to take root. It is parents first, who need guidance on how to engage their children in science activities and exploration, and expose the children to the wondrous world of queries and marvel.

 

It is observed often, that it is parents of young children who are nervous and unconfident of supporting their child’s science studies than they are supporting other academic subjects. This concern is compounded by other challenges to science learning like limited facilities of libraries, motivated teaching staff who will go beyond the textbooks to trigger the children’s interest, school supplies for science activities, as well as a reluctance for conducting class field trips to science museums, technology centres, laboratories, research centres etc. The parents as well as the prevalent education system makes even informal science learning just as challenging, outside of the classroom.

 

 

With all this piling up for several years now, we have created a slowly escalating science crisis in our country through narrow education policy, limited funding, low regard for development of a scientific temperament in children, and a lack of respect for early-learners. The result is a generation of parents who have not benefited from the early-learning experiences in science that would help them shape their own children’s science understanding. This has created a perfect muddle for young bright minds of today who are underprepared, underinformed, and underexposed to foundational science concepts, language, and experiences.

 

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If we want to change this picture, we must start at the grass root level. A dynamic dedicated forum is required that could involve young primary school children to high-schoolers, their teachers, their families, and their communities. A platform that will function to not just encourage but feed and nurture the natural curiosity of the children about the world around them, is much required. Such an organisation that offers a facility to parents and as well as educators to join them, and carry back ideas on how to encourage children to explore new ideas and avenues, is the dire need of the times. DYAU is one such broad spectrum organisation that has come up with many innovative means of offering rich substrates of various scientific subjects for young minds to thrive on. Through its inimitable approach to learning, they ensure that learning experiences are not fractured into isolated categories like math or life sciences, but instead recognize that learning happens across boundaries and in real-life settings. This is how true holistic scientific temperament is formed and fostered.

 

 

One of the leading activities implemented, that imprints the child’s tender mind, is interaction with living examples of scientific community. These are esteemed Scientists who can bring complex concepts to the children in the simplest forms making them cerebrally accessible. They show science for what it is- like it surrounds us each day, in everything we do. They bust the myth that science is the prerogative of the top scorer of marks, instead it is for everyone who approaches it with an open mind. These talks by researchers, inventors, technologists, and various experts will work to open vistas of possibilities to the new generation who is way ahead in terms of adopting technology, acknowledging breakthrough concepts and accepting novel concepts. This is the new generation that considers living on Mars in the near future or organ regeneration and cloning, a routine essential.

 

 

Whether it is a field of engineering or biotechnology, astrophysics of medical robotics, whether it is about science in a petri plate or about the formulating the time space anomalies, every first step was taken when an inquisitive mind asked the Whys, Hows, Whats, Which and Whens. That is exactly the purpose of such a forum like DAYU, that enlivens, fuels and invigorates that which is already present by default in every child’s mind. He may go on to become a lawyer, or a banker, an architect or a musician, the science in his heart and the logical thinking developed of his brain will be a guiding light to understand the subject and perform better.

 

Do we owe it to this generation? YES! Without a figment of doubt. As we implement this exercise, we may perhaps on the way, even realise that the gen next is so mentally agile and dextrous, that we may not have the means to be able to cope up with their thirst for knowledge and the truth. We may not have answers to what they are seeking. But this is exactly the kind of generation we want to create, that which dares to think of what can be, beyond what is defined today. It may not be up to us to give all the answers, but it is unquestionably and undeniably up to us to create an ambience that will offer various options to our upcoming generations, to investigate and explore as their minds expand in thought and vision.

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