ARLA/CLUSTER: O radioamadorismo desperta o interesse em ciência

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Ham radio to encourage student interest in science

The News Minute reports the Open Space Foundation uses Amateur Radio
to encourage young people to take an interest in science

The News Minute says:

Open Space Foundation was started in 2013 by Surender Ponnalagar (23),
Bharath Kumar VU3BRE (21), Dinesh Kumar (19) and Anupama Pradeepan
(23) - all of whom met at various science events. While Anupama is
currently employed, the other three are doing their Masters'.

“Our idea is to take science to rural students. There are many
opportunities for students to explore science, but most are unaware of
these. We ourselves got to know about it only later. The idea of OSF
is to develop science hobbies in children,” he explains.

Initially, the four would travel to different schools with simple
science equipment like telescope, microscope etc to conduct one-day
science forums. A couple of years later, they realised that this
method was not helping their mission. That's when they came up with
Open Science Centres (OSC) in schools.

The first OSC was set up at Municipal Middle School in Tiruppur. “We
make it a point to meet students two to three times every week, during
non-working days. We have selected 30 students based on interest, with
help from teachers, to be trained in OSC,” he adds.

And the very first idea that they introduced to students was the ham
radio, also known as the amateur radio.

Any student who has completed 12 years of age is eligible to obtain
the ham radio licence from the government. “There is an easy exam that
anyone with basic electrical knowledge can pass. The ham radio is the
best way to learn and discuss science. You can communicate with anyone
across the world, share your recent science experiments. It is a very
good hobby,” he says, the excitement evident in his voice.

Read the full story at
https://www.thenewsminute
.com/article/meet-group-tn-youngsters-taking-science-government-schools-112554