Agastya International Foundation

**Agastya International Foundation**
Industry	Education
Founded	1999
Headquarters	Bangalore, India
Area served	South India
Key people	PK Iyengar, Ex-Chairman, Indian Atomic Energy Commission; Rakesh Jhunjhunwala - Investor and philanthropist; Alok Oberoi - Investment banker; Ramji Raghavan (Chairman); Mahavir Kumar (Managing Trustee)
Number of employees	350
Website	www.agastya.org

Agastya International Foundation is a Bangalore-based education trust that seeks to transform and stimulate the thinking of rural children and teachers. Agastya does this by bringing hands-on science education to rural Government schools spread across the southern Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, through the use of outreach programs such as the “Science on Wheels” (Mobile Lab Program) and Mega Science fairs. Agastya's stated vision is to build a creative India of ‘tinkerers, solution-seekers and creators’ that are ‘humane, anchored and connected’ by inspiring widespread social development, innovation and leadership through education. It is one of the largest mobile science education programs for disadvantaged children and rural teachers in the world.

History

Agastya was established as a Public Charitable Trust in 1999. It is the brainchild of a group of individuals, led by Ramji Raghavan, a former non resident Indian banker. Ramji came back to India with a vision of providing education to poor children and teachers - education that would be the opposite of conventional techniques that emphasize theoretical, rote-based learning. Ramji was interested in starting a rural education center that would offer creative, alternative education. In conjunction with educationists, scientists and institutional leaders, Ramji felt that the emphasis needed to be on hands-on science to spark curiosity and engage children in creative thinking and questioning. Gopi Warrier, Chairman, Ayurveda Holdings, named the foundation after Maharishi Agastya, famous for spreading sacred knowledge to south India, authoring Tamil grammar and creating the Siddha school of medicine.

Agastya networked with eminent scientists, developing a new method of education that would make learning scientific concepts fun, useful and accessible. Investors like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Alok Oberoi and Desh Deshpande have helped Agastya by funding its programs and helping craft its strategies.

Key programs

A night community visit by the Agastya team
Agastya Mobile Lab visiting a village in Kunigal
The Kuppam Creative Lab encourages hands-on learning of scientific concepts.

The Agastya program began to expand in 2000-01 when Agastya acquired 170 acres (69 ha) of rocky wasteland in Kuppam, a deprived rural area in Andhra Pradesh. A science centre was set up that housed various interactive models [in physics, chemistry, biology, math and ecology] and that could be used by rural schoolchildren and teachers to explore concepts. The Science Center at Kuppam now houses over 300 low-cost experiments. The Discovery Center has several interactive science exhibits, and is one of the few newly emerging interactive science museums in rural India. Children and teachers from the surrounding villages and other schools in Kuppam and KGF in Karnataka visit the Center on a periodic basis. These children are exposed to a number of basic concepts in physics, biology, chemistry and ecology and are allowed to explore and operate the models on their own.

Science on Wheels (mobile lab)

Mobile science labs are vehicles manned by a driver and two instructors that carry experiments and travel long distances to remote rural schools to demonstrate models and experiments and involve children and teachers in hands-on science. The Agastya instructors teach scientific concepts through simple experiments in sessions that emphasize interaction and questioning. While most experiments are simple in nature and use material that is commonly available, the mobile lab also has complete working models of the entire solar system.

Children are able to relate better to concepts explained through interactive demonstrations rather than through rote learning. They learn about a range of topics including astral bodies, rotation and revolution, the effect of gravitation, eclipses and how the brain deciphers signals.Agastya's Mobile Labs operate regularly across Karnataka and near its campus in Andhra Pradesh. The Mobile Lab has also visited Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

The Mobile Labs ("Spokes") work in concert with satellite science centers("hubs"). The "hub-and-spoke model" is scalable and operates in over 20 rural districts.

Watch the Agastya mobile lab in action by clicking here.^[1] Night mobile lab visits aimed at village community members, demonstrate the fun of science and encourage parents to value learning and send their children to school.

Science fairs

File:Science fair2.JPG

A science fair in progress

Science fairs are held to enable Agastya to reach out to large groups of children simultaneously. Using simple models, 12 to 16 year old young instructors demonstrate phenomena such as the solar and lunar eclipse, seasonal changes, concepts such as pressure and volume relationship and the protein chains that link together to form insulin. A feature of the experiments is that they are carried out with easily available materials such as scraps of paper, pieces of nylon ropes and broken pieces of buttons. These Science fairs in addition to targeting a large audience of children (a mega science fair attracts over 15,000 children in a week) serve as a platform to encourage young instructors to demonstrate programs to their peers. This facilitates greater interaction and understanding of concepts, boosts confidence and improves their communication skills.

Teacher development programs

The Foundation's teacher training programs aim to propagate creative-thinking and problem-solving skills. Agastya uses a variety of channels to help teachers, including mobile labs, science center workshops, learning by observation, learning by doing and campus based programs.

Agastya uses non-standard approaches to transform teachers; offering modules that integrate learning and knowledge across subjects, and working with mixed groups of teachers and children to raise interaction and bridge the gap between teacher training and the school classroom. A program to train dropouts (Operation Vijay) was launched in 2008. In addition to this, the new campus-based Center for Creative Teaching (sponsored by the Schlumberger Foundation) is expected to be a model for holistic, creativity-based learning. Experienced resource persons support Agastya staff to train rural teachers.

Young Instructors Program – Children teach children

File:Young instructor.JPG

Agastya Young Instructor explaining scientific concepts to other students

Apart from teaching and demonstrating through experiments, the Science on Wheels program also identifies and trains students to be young instructors. These students are provided training on science models in addition to building their capacities to present and interact with their peers. They then explain scientific concepts to other children at specially organized science fairs. The audience (children) is able to absorb information better as they can interact with their peer instructors without the fear of being reproached, eliminating barriers that normally exist between an adult and a child. Two Agastya rural young instructors won a Special Award at IRIS 2008, and four won awards at IRIS 2009 ^[2] an annual science competition sponsored by Intel, the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry. The Agastya young instructors were among 24 awardees from 1000 entrants across India and were the largest group of rural children to win the award.

Ecology and environment

Hundreds of rural children make time during their summer holidays to work on Science and Environment projects at Agastya’s Creativity Lab in Kuppam. Gigantic human figures landscaped on the slopes of a hillock have a variety of medicinal plants and herbs. The medicinal benefits of these plants are correlated with various parts of the human body through specific planting patterns. Around the campus, 15,000 medicinal plants have been planted and rainwater harvesting has been introduced. The campus has regenerated over 300 different species of trees, plants and shrubs and is being transformed from an arid dry area into a lush, semi-deciduous forest with several medicinal plants. The environmentalist A N Yellappa Reddy has led this project and has initiated a second one, “Bala Vana” or “the forest of the prodigies”. Harish Bhat and his team from the Indian Institute of Science are documenting the biodiversity improvements effected on the Agastya campus. This includes night eco studies to which children are invited. Campus land that was overgrazed (circa 1999) now produces several varieties of grass – villagers are given free access to cut and use the grass to feed their cattle. Agastya, in August 2007 initiated a Mobile Ecology Lab and community education program sponsored by Agilent Technologies in Kunigal, Karnataka. About 10 models dealing with water, soil, energy and agriculture were developed. It seeks to not just educate but tackle issues that threaten the local environment and create awareness about the scale and nature of environment degradation. A second Mobile Ecology Lab sponsored by UPS was launched in 2009 to serve communities surrounding the campus.

The Arts program

Agastya has also initiated an “Art on Wheels” program (sponsored by Art Venture, Singapore) to expose children to art and design concepts. The Arts Center at the Agastya campus links science and ecology to art and introduces children to the concepts of color, texture, shapes and art in nature. In addition to making science creative for rural children, it also seeks to encourage rural children to express themselves through drawing, painting and sculpting.

Partnerships

An independent core group of educationists, scientists and investors leads Agastya’s efforts: This includes Dr P.K. Iyengar, former Chairman, Indian Atomic Energy Commission, Mr. K.V. Raghavan, former Chairman, Engineers India Limited, Rakesh Jhunjhunwalla, stock market investor and philanthropist, Alok Oberoi, former Goldman Sachs partner,Dr VK Aatre, former Scientific Advisor to the Minister of Defence, Dr R. Krishnan, former Director, Gas Turbine Research Establishment and H.N. Srihari, former General Manager, ICI Group. This group supports Agastya in its efforts to spark curiosity and transform science education in rural areas.

Several science educators, including Profs. S V Subramanyam and MA Ramaswamy formerly of the Indian Institute of Science, Prof. Parthan, ex-Indian Institute of Technology–Kharagpur, Mr. Shivkumar, former Chief Designer of Hindustan Machine Tools Limited (HMT), Dr Leela, Prof. Balurgi and Prof. Ayachit (BVB College of Engineering) have developed models to explain concepts in physics and biology. Ms Sujatha Ramdorai of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Chennai Mathematical Institute are helping Agastya devise strategies to disseminate math education. Agastya has also collaborated with the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education–HBSCE, which is a premier institution in India for research and development in science, technology and mathematics education. For its ecology project, Agastya collaborates with former Karnataka Environment Secretary, AN Yellappa Reddy, and Harish Bhat of the Indian Institute of Science. Agastya works with students and faculty from M.I.T and Cambridge University to propagate high-quality programs. To widely disseminate its hands-on education Agastya works closely with the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Agastya has received media coverage in India. Overseas, articles on Agastya by its Chairman have appeared in the UN Chronicle, Inflections and Education, Knowledge and Economy. Agastya’s Chairman has made presentations at the Institute of Physics, London, representatives of key American educational institutions, Indian Institute of Science, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), national and international science conferences, Rotary Clubs and several schools and colleges. Agastya is funded by such foundations as the R. Jhunjhunwala Foundation, Oberoi Family Foundation, Deshpande Foundation, Schlumberger Foundation, Global Fund for Children and the TK Foundation, and has received corporate donations from Agilent Technologies, ENAM, i-flex solutions, Jain Irrigation Systems, Synopsys and Honeywell among others.

Achievements and recognition

Agastya's programs have reached over 3 million children (of whom 50 percent are girls) and 120,000 teachers, from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. With 40 mobile labs and 20 science centers Agastya provides annually over 1.5 million exposures. For two years in a row (2009, 2009) rural students from Agastya have won awards at the highly competitive IRIS-Intel National Science Fair Competition. Furthermore the Prime Minister’s National Knowledge Commission has also recommended the Agastya model for India-wide scale-up, and Agastya’s ‘commitment to action’ was recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative in 2008. Agastya was also invited to present its work at the Centenary Conference of the Indian Institute of Science, at the PanIIT2008 and MIT Media Lab. The Agastya Mobile lab program was featured in the July 27, 2009 issue of India Today Special issue – The Game Changers: Individuals and institutions who have transformed education in India.

Key people behind Agastya International Foundation

PK Iyengar, Ex-Chairman, Indian Atomic Energy Commission
K.V. Raghavan, Ex-Chairman, Engineers India
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala – investor and philanthropist
Alok Oberoi – former Goldman Sachs partner
Mahavir Kumar, former President of the Bangalore Stock Exchange
R. Krishnan, former Director, Defence Research
VK Aatre, former Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister
KG Narayanan, former head of ADE
Shivkumar, former Chief Designer of HMT
SV Subramanyam and Ramaswamy – retired professors from the Indian Institute of Science, Prof. Parthan of Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur
Balurgi, ex-Professor of Physics in LVR College Raichur

Notes

References

[1] ttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6845562290450522271

[2] ttp://www.iris.educationinindia.net/iris.htm

[1]

[2]