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REPORT

Guru Nirman - Patna Chapter: A joint program of Gurugram Society andIAPT_APhO Cell.

Recognizing, nurturing and honoring talent is animportant aspect of building excellence. A necessarystep towards this goal is the empowerment of teachersenabling them to meaningfully engage students makingthem into autonomous learners. It is important thatclassrooms become participatory laboratoriescontinuously evolving strategies to enable studentsdevelop various skills associated with the teachinglearning process.

One of the objectives of the Gurugram Society(www.gurugram.org)istheGuruNirmanprogram.Asthe objectives of the IAPT in general and IAPT APhOCell in particular is to develop a positive milieu formeaningful Science Education, the IAPT APhO Cellreadily agreed to offer Academic inputs and-expertise tothe Gurugram Society so that a joint venture and aprototype may be evolved to engage, empower andtrain teachers to bring about a change in pedagogy. It isproposed that training teachers would lead to multipliereffect so that trained local teachers can reach to thegrass roots in small towns and villages.

An introductory programme was the inauguration of thePatna Chapter on Nov.23, 2015 at the Bihar Chamber ofCommerce Hall in Patna. About 150 high schoolteachers, principals and directors from in and aroundPatna attended. The Secretary Gurugram Society, Mr.Uday Pratap Singh welcomed the guests andemphasized the need for a platform where teacherscould network, sharing experiences, methodologies etc.enriching the entire community.

Prof. Vijay Singh (ex National Coordinator ScienceOlympiads) was the main speaker. He introduced theteachers to Concept Inventories and emphasized theimportance of learning through the identification,analysis and correction of conceptual errors. He

emphasized that the class room, through suchmethodologies becomes a participatory laboratoryenabling Teachers to research in their own environmentinstead of hunting for a research problem beyond theirteaching hours.Dr. Ravi S. Bhattacharjee, Co-ordinator IAPT APhOCell, spoke on the necessity of experimental work. With

an example from the APhO, he introduced the audienceto a complex problem and demonstrated that anexperimental problem could be as challenging as atheory problem and even more as experimentalproblems are real time and one does not have the luxuryof idealization. Through a participatory example, heemphasized the need for a pedagogy such that studentsdevelop specific skills such as practice in usingdisciplinary vocabulary and concepts, reinforcing andbuilding on materials presented through lecture,discussion, and independent study, data accumulationwith its inherent uncertainty, analysis and criticalthinking and developing procedural skills (such as theproper use of instruments and tools).

Dr. Pramendra Singh (Leader of various Indian Teamsat International Physics Olympiads) enthused theteachers. He emphasised the need for dissemination ofScience in local languages using local resources. Such

IAPT Bulletin, January 2016 17

an exercise would require preparing texts and studymaterial in vernacular. This is a voluminous task andrequires the active participation of the teacher at the

grass roots level.In the light of suchwork he re- "emphasised theneed for building anetwork.The functionended with Mr.Uday PratapSingh proposing avote of thanks. Afollow-upworkshop onbuilding conceptinventories was t:'~_8~~iliii'announced. Thetentative date isDec.11,2015.

RaviS.Bhattacha~ee,Co-ordinator IAPT APhO Cell

ERRATA

REPORT OF THE 30th lA PT ANNUALCONVENTION, HYDERABAD

(Page: 303-305, December 2015 Issue of the Bulletin)

In the published report some lines in the last paragraphwere left out inadvertently. The same paragraph isreproduced below in full.

"Prof H C Pradhan, President IAPT then summarizedthe proceedings of the Convention and spoke veryappreciatively of the effort put in by RC 11 in making theConvention a grand success on all fronts. He wasparticularly appreciative of the academic focusachieved by the Convention. Or Sr Nirmala, Principal ofthe College and Organizing Secretary of theConvention, in her concluding remarks, once againthanked IAPT and RC11 for conducting the Conventionin the College and expressed the hope that this wouldgive a fillip to experiments-based Physics teaching. OrRajeshwar Rao, President RC11 and Convenor of theConvention, summed-up the outcomes of theexperience of organizing the Convention and hoped thatthis would lead to increased IAPT activity in the Region.Or Chakrabarti concluded bv exoressina his whole-