Virtual Science Lab for children

Ministry of Science & Technology launched India’s first Virtual Science Lab for children under CSIR Jigyasa programme, which will also connect students with scientists across the country.

CSIR has partnered with IIT Bombay to develop a Virtual Lab platform under CSIR Jigyasa programme, which facilitates classroom learning with laboratory research for school students.

About Jigyasa programme

 “Jigyasa” was launched in 2017 by CSIR. Also known as CSIR Jigyasa program, it is an initiative taken during the Platinum Jubilee year which envisions a  new India and ‘Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) for CSIR.

The objective of Jigyasa is to extend the classroom learning by focusing on well-planned research laboratory based learning for school students. Students and teachers participate in different engagement modules by visiting CSIR Laboratories in close proximity. During the visits, CSIR scientists directly interact with the students and teachers. To bring in quality with value added research knowledge, CSIR laboratories collaborate with Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVS), Karnataka State S&T Academy (KSTA), Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NitiAayog, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), NGO’s, stakeholders, individuals etc. Under the CSIR-AIM initiative, NITI Aayog’s ATL and CSIR’s Jigyasa program initiated a weekly webinar for school students which ran almost the whole pandemic period and continues successfully till date.

CSIR Jigyasa has created a YouTube Channel. CSIR has adopted 249 ATL’s (Atal Tinkering Lab’s) by joining hands with AIM-NitiAyaog.

Target audience

The target audience for the Virtual Lab platform is students of the standard VI to XII (11-18 years) who would like to explore science using different activities, experienced researchers and faculties on the subjects of Science, Mathematics, Biology and IT.

Overview of the platform

The main aim of the Virtual Lab is to provide quality research exposure and innovative pedagogy for school students to drive their scientific curiosity based on an online interactive medium with simulated experiments, pedagogy based content, videos, chat forums, animations, gaming, quiz, facility sharing, webinars etc. The content will be available in English initially, but has been planned to be made available in Hindi and other regional languages. The CSIR Virtual lab will therefore enable curiosity driven research based concepts, encourage higher order thinking skills, promote entrepreneurship and develop passion about science.

The key highlights of the virtual lab are:

• Open source platform
• Access content in regional languages
• Scientist / Researchers Support
• Knowledge Upgradation for Teachers and Students
• Project based support
• Fun based Gaming
• Need based Videos and Animation
• Simulation Experiments
• Promote scientific temperament
• Science based webinars
• Student Entrepreneurship
• Student-Expert forums
• Student to Student forums
• Simplified content
• Availability to technical assistance
• Build confidence and motivation

How to access

To access the  Virtual Science Lab for children visit https://jigyasa-csir.in/

Source : CSIR Jigyasa Virtual Lab (CJVL)