SCIENTIA launched at DAC to trigger scientific research projects

Under the guidance from the Western University, California, the specially abled children of the Different Art Centre at the Magic Planet in Trivandrum gets a hands-on start on scientific research activities. The project named as “Scientia” is a joint venture by Magic Planet and the Western University.

Scientia aims at promoting curiosity amongst children on scientific subjects and take them to international levels. Research works completed by the children will be handed over to Western University. Western University will assist to present the research results at international science forums.

As Kerala is going through a lockdown period due to COVID pandemic, the participating children would be working on their tasks from home. As a first phase, micro laboratories will be setup at their homes, which will be transformed later at a larger scale at the Different Art Centre campus soon as the centre re-opens. This laboratory will be armed to handle the multitude of experiments by the children.

A Research supervisory panel comprising of Dr. Finosh Thankam, Faculty at the Western University, Fr. Vincent Perepadan, Shyla Thomas and Divya has been formed. This panel will be evaluating the children’s progress on each task on periodic basis.

Dr. Mohammed Asheel, Executive Director of the Kerala Social Security Mission formally inaugurated the research project ‘Scientia’ in a zoom meeting conducted on Tuesday, 07 July 2020. The meeting was attended by more than 65 children from the Different Art Centre.

Dr. Finosh Thankam gave explanatory guidelines to the participants. The three-hour long meeting had an active participation from the children along with their parents.  Gopinath Muthukad, Executive Director of the Magic Academy, Mahesh Gupthan, Fr.Vincent Perepadan, Shyla Thomas, Chandrasenan Mithrumala, K.P. Sivakumar, Dr.Akhila S. Nair and Divya T also joined the active online discussion.

Screenshots from the Scientia inauguration meeting online.