Panaji, 7th July, 2015 …. A four-day teachers’ training workshop in earth sciences was held during July 2-5, 2015. The Workshop was jointly organised by the International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO) and the ESSO-National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Vasco-da-Gama. Seventeen teachers from high schools in Panjim, Mapusa, Ponda, Vasco-da-Gama, Madgaon, Verna, Salcete, participated in the Workshop.
The Workshop was inaugurated by Dr. S. Rajan, Former Director, ESSO-NCAOR Dr. Anish Kumar Warrier, Secretary, IGEO and Project Scientist, ESSO-NCAOR welcomed the gathering and Prof. R. Shankar, Chair, IGEO delivered a note on the activities of IGEO.
Dr. S. Rajan in his inaugural speech underlined the importance of earth science education in schools. Dr. M. Ravichandran, Director, ESSO-NCAOR delivered the presidential address. Prof. Chris King (Keele University, United Kingdom) and Prof. Nir Orion (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) were the resource persons for the workshop.
The workshop involved a series of hands-on, practical activities during which the participants were invited to test the different activities and provide feedback on their educational value and practicability for teaching in Indian classrooms. Each workshop activity was designed to teach Earth science knowledge and understanding whilst developing critical thinking skills in both participants and the school students they would teach. Apart from classroom teaching and practical demonstrations, the teachers were also taken to field sites and were asked to observe the different processes taking place.
Dr. Nagaraj G. Honnekeri, Director, State Council for Educational Research and Training, Goa attended the Valedictory Ceremony on 5th July, 2015 and appreciated the efforts of the IGEO and ESSO-NCAOR to organise the Workshop and also commended the participating teachers. At the end of the Workshop, feedback from all the participants was taken about the workshop and the organisational part.
All the participants were impressed by the way Prof. King and Prof. Nir gave demonstrations on the different subjects in Earth Sciences and assured that they would make use of this workshop to better explain and train their students. The participants also commended ESSO-NCAOR for organising this workshop. Similar workshops will be organised by IGEO for school teachers in Mangaluuru and Bengaluuru in the next two weeks.
