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.