PAAC, through the Dept. of Physics, conducted a workshop on Astronomy & Eclipses on 24th Sept 2019 for the teachers of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi at our college. Organized in association with Pilikula Regional Science Center (PRSC) and Association of Physics Teachers of Mangalore University (APTMU) and Inaugurated by H.H.Sri Vishwapreeya Theertha Swamiji with Mr. Sheshashayan K (DDPI, Udupi dist.) the workshop brought a whole lot of Astronomy to the teachers.
Dr. A.P Bhat, founding co-ordinator of PAAC spoke on the Wonders of Cosmos, where he discussed Planets, Stars, Galaxies, Scale of distance for the Universe. The teachers marveled at the astronomical phenomena, size of astronomical objects and the beauty of the universe.
Mr. Vignesh Bhat, scientific officer at PRSC, spoke on The needfor a science center and discussed the activities of the Science Center at Pilikula and introduced the Swami Vivekananda Planetarium at Pilikula and its facilities.
Mr. Atul Bhat, co-ordinator of PAAC, spoke on Eclipses: Nature’s Hide and Seek discussing the phenomenon and types of eclipses on Earth and other planets.
Mr. Mahesh PN, department of Physics at Center for Advanced Learning, Mangalore, spoke on Bring galaxies into your classrooms and spoke of the beauty of galaxies, night sky and how teachers can incept astronomical ideas into their students.
The highlight of this program was the Hands-On session on Eclipse Viewing where the students of PAAC discussed and trained the teachers to view the eclipse safely using various apparatus that can be purchased or built to view the sun.
The program was attended by 160 teachers and Poornaprajna Old Students’ Association sponsored and Dr. Somayaji, president of the alumni association presented a Pin-Hole Projector apparatus to each of the schools that attended the workshop.
A whole lot of Astronomy was learnt and discussed on this day with the teachers giving PAAC their positive feedback and their peaked interest on astronomy at the end of the program.
