students of Dikshant make Telescopes
Vinay Kumar
Chandigarh
Presenting
how education can be transformed by introducing practicality, Dikshant
International & Global School, brought another opportunity
for students to explore their potential. As a culmination of a seven
day workshop on Telescope making, an ‘Exhibition of Telescopes’ was organized
at Press Club here, in which telescopes made by students from both
the Dikshant Schools were showcased. Mitul Dikshit, Chairman, Dikshant Schools,
Tushar Purohit , a telescope expert from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and
Astrophysics, IUCAA, Pune who conducted the workshop
were present along-with the 25 students who made the telescopes. In all 25
students were involved in the telescope making. Five different teams having 5
students each were made and a total of 5 telescopes were created.
“It
is a matter of joy for us to find our students learning practical aspects apart
from theory. The scenario of education is changing these days. The motive of
this workshop was to make students get acquainted with the process of making
practical use of their classroom lessons. We have a well equipped Think Lab
established at our Global School campus where we keep
having scientific workshops conducted by experts ”, said Mitul
Dikshit, Chairman, Dikshant Schools. The telescope making workshop continued
for seven days. The initial phase of the workshop started with teaching
students how to grind concave mirror, calculate curvature and focal length of
mirrors. This was followed by a session on smoothening of glass which holds
great importance in the telescope making process. Till third day of the
workshop, students were able to properly grind the glass. The fourth and fifth
day mainly focused on teaching them the process of polishing of glass using
pitch tool. For the last two days, students were involved in doing testing of
class, calculating length of tube and drilling the same for fitting. In
addition, they also started coloring the tube.
Tushar Purohit who conducted the
workshop has an expertise in telescopes like Newtonion ,
Galilio , casigrain etc. He has an experience of more than 18 years in
Telescope & astronomy. Tushar said, "The students made Newtonian type
telescopes. We used household items to create the telescopes. Table top glass
was grinded by keeping one over other with carborandom( silicon carbide). The
main body of telescope was made using PVC pipes which were painted
from inside and outside by students, these were then put up on an Altitude
Azimuth mount. A concave mirror was used instead of a lens to make the
telescopes."The students seemed motivated on being recognized for their
commendable achievement. Camilla Sardanaa Class IXth student at Dikshant,
shared her experience saying, "We are really excited. As the telescopes
are worthy enough to be used to view Jupiter and Saturn & its
rings. We can see the moon with its craters too." “It is a one
time opportunity and I am happy that I used it efficiently. The workshop
introduced me to the technicalities of telescope making and will be helpful to
me as I am looking forward to go in this field only.” said Siddhant Kapoor of
class IXth at Dikshant. All the sessions made students understand
aspects like how a telescope functions, it's parts & their uses etc. the
real learning came when the students made telescopes in a hands on manner.
Dikshant School has been actively involved in various academic and co-curricular
activities for quite a long time and will be coming with more such events
helping in students' overall development.
