Students studying in English-medium schools have plenty of study material available at various websites to help them for their school educational years. However, students studying in Marathi-medium schools don’t really have this Internet advantage.
The Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education (HBCSE) has come to their rescue. They have launched a website called Open Educational Resources for Schools (OER4S) which provides study material in both science and maths in Marathi for students from Class 1 to 10. Of course, this education material is merely to support the existing textbooks’ material. Professor Agarkar, the project head of HBCSE, along with his team, created contents for the students to understand the various concepts of science and maths and divided this content in 3 sections – for primary students; for upper primary students, and for secondary students, depending on their levels of study. The content includes quizzes, games, puzzles and activities, questionnaires for self-assessment, etc. Workshops will also be organised at various times of the year.
This project has been developed in collaboration with TIFR, Mumbai, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) and Indian Consortium for Educational Transformation (I-CONSENT). It has been financed by the Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Commission (RGSTC), Govt. of Maharashtra.
In addition to helping students, the site also provided information on classroom teaching aids and projects which can be undertaken for students. This will help teachers a good deal. In addition, there are useful explanations of the concepts of science and maths for parents to understand.
A unique feature of the website is that it welcomes contributions for additional content, which will be edited by the site’s adm. before it is uploaded.
The aim of the site is thus to help students to get a good grasp of science and maths concepts in their mother tongue which will help them later when attending English-medium colleges.
Contact Inforamtion:
1. Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
V. N. Purav Road, Mankhurd
Mumbai 400 088, India
Ph: 022-2507-2100 / Fax: 022-2556-6803
Email: oer4s@hbcse.tifr.res.in
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
V. N. Purav Road, Mankhurd
Mumbai 400 088, India
Ph: 022-2507-2100 / Fax: 022-2556-6803
Email: oer4s@hbcse.tifr.res.in
5th Floor, ICC Tower,
Senapati Bapat Marg,
Pune 411016, India.
Tel: 020-40114500/501
Website: Open Educational Resources for Schools