Agastya International Foundation (Agastya) and Honeywell India have partnered to launch Honeywell Science Experience — an integrated learning program to cultivate curiosity, nurture creativity, and instill confidence among middle and high school students in government schools.
Honeywell India will support 11 science centres, 10 mobile science labs, and 1100 young instructor leaders, benefiting more than 48,000 students and 200 teachers in Bangalore, Gurgaon and Delhi from 2016 to 2019.
The program aims to help develop creative thinking and problem-solving abilities in children. Through its hands-on teaching-learning methods, the program aims to foster child and teacher participation in experiential learning, and boost science education.
Anil Kakodkar, nuclear scientist and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, said: "The current state of education in India requires qualitative upgradation through well-designed student-centric constructivist education in which experiential learning is a key component. It is encouraging to see Agastya International Foundation and Honeywell India undertaking this initiative to promote experiential science education."
The foundation believes that innovative, fun, and student-friendly solutions are needed to enable scientific learning among children, especially those in rural and remote regions.
The foundation’s programs have already benefited more than eight million children and 200,000 teachers in 18 states in India.
Ramji Raghavan, founder and chairman of Agastya, said, "We run one of the world's largest hands-on science education programs for economically disadvantaged children and teachers. Support from partners like Honeywell helps us create the right infrastructure, and get practical technology inputs to make such a program sustainable and effective."
Honeywell has been promoting unique science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs around the world.
"We just wanted to scale up the impact for experiential science education in India for the long term," said Vikas Chadha, president of Honeywell India.
