The Breakthrough Science Society Tamil Nadu State Committee organized a two-day science camp at the Regional Science Centre (RSC), Coimbatore on June 7 and 8, 2025. The camp was for the activists and volunteers of BSS to orient them on the problems of science education and training them in science demonstrations. Around 45 members participated in the camp.
The camp was inaugurated by Dr Lenin Bharathi, the Officer In-Charge of RSC. This was followed by a lecture on “Crisis on Education and science learning” by Prof Yogarajan, Secretary, BSS Tamilnadu. Mr.Obili Chandran, CEO of Mango Education spoke about the activities of science demonstration-based teaching in schools and institutions in Coimbatore. In the evening a group discussion on Science Learning was organized and individuals contributed by sharing their teaching experiences. Prof Thiyagarajan, CIIT, Coimbatore, Prof Selvarani and Prof Gayathri from Madurai, Prof Sathish, SRMCAS Coimbatore and Dr Lenin Bharathi, RSC took part in the discussion. The discussion was moderated by Prof Yogarajan.
On the second day, in the morning session, Science demonstrations were shown by Mr R Sivakumar, joint Secretary, BSS, Madurai unit. Understanding mensuration, geometry, Pressure etc through simple experiments were shown by him in which children actively took part. Mr D B Parthasarathy demonstrated a simple vernier calliper, law of gravity and force, sound travel etc by hands on experiments. Mr M Sivakumar, State Committee member of BSS TN made a presentation on the science during renaissance in order to point out the scientific spirit that existed at the time of Indian independence struggle and the role played by Acharya Profulla Ray, J C Bose, S N Bose, Ramanujan, Sir C V Raman and Dr Mahendra Lal Sarkar who founded the IACS Kolkata as the then Science Learning Centre.
A memorial Lecture on Professor Jayant V Narlikar to pay tribute to him was given by Dr Venkatesan. Dr Lenin Bharathi gave an introduction of Prof Narlikar. A stage play “Starry Messenger” on Galileo’s contribution was performed as a science drama where Galileo is brought back to earth by his daughter to show whether his discoveries and findings were accepted by the society. The interactive play created cheer among the audience and they also became a part of the play by interacting with Galileo.
The concluding session was addressed online by Prof Dhrubajyoti Mukhopadhyay, All India President, BSS, through video conferencing. He specifically projected the two important tasks BSS is engaged in, namely developing movement on Climate Change mitigation and setting up of science learning centres throughout the country.The camp ended with each member promising that they would take up science popularization activities in their respective districts and the Coimbatore members promised that they would initiate the works in the city soon.