A Science and Maths resource center supported by Cognizant was inaugurated on Wednesday July 1 at Arasan Kuppam Middle School in Vembakkam block. The Headmaster, Mr.Murugan, the Panchayat Head, Ms.Vijaya Sekar, the Panchayat Official Mr.Sekar and the head of PTA presided over the function.

On behalf of AID India Mr. Balaji Sampath, Mr. Ravishankar, Ms. Radha Ramesh and Mr. R. Vivek (Project managers for the center), the district coordinators and volunteers were present.

The Headmaster, in his speech, spoke about the importance of ‘hands on approach’ in learning science. He thanked AID India and Cognizant for providing the school with numerous activities to learn Science and Maths in an easy and interesting manner.

Mr.Balaji Sampath inaugurated the Resource Center amidst roaring applause from the children and the teachers. He also demonstrated a few simple science concepts to the children. The children were very excited to learn that science could be done using things around us. The Panchayat officials were very happy to see the different types of models and experiments for the children in the center. The children also took turns in doing the experiments and learning from the models.

The resource center will have one full time AID volunteer who will conduct 1 hour classes’ everyday for classes 6th, 7th and 8th. The children will be taught concepts in Maths and Science using the models and experiments. They will also be given activities to strengthen their concepts. The children will be evaluated on a continuous basis to fill any gaps.