Webinar with the students at Gaurishankar English Boarding School, Arghakhachi!

Mr. Bijaya Chandra Luitel

Recently, I conducted a webinar for tenth graders at Gaurishankar English Boarding School, Arghakhachi which was conducted with the help of Mr. Sujab Bhusal, one of the associate members of Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO). 

In the webinar, we focused on discussing mainly three things: what Science is and the history of the development of the Scientific method, what futures are possible in the Sciences for a student who will be appearing in the SEE exams soon and finally the possibility of enrichment opportunities like the Olympiads for students in high school. 

Firstly, we discussed what Science is all about. The students had a reverence towards Science and summarized their feelings towards Science thusly: “Science is the deepest form of everything”. However, in order to grasp a future in Science, it is very important for potential students of Science to realize that Science is a method of inquiry, something which I stressed by citing several examples from historical figures. Consequently, we discussed Aristotle and Galileo, focusing on the latter’s experiments with inclined planes which resulted in the understanding that all objects, regardless of their weights, fall to the Earth’s surface when dropped from the same height at the same time, if their densities are sufficient to resist most of the drag caused due to Earth’s atmosphere. 

Next, we talked about future opportunities in the Sciences. There were many students in the audience who wanted non-traditional roles (roles in the context of Nepal) in Science, like becoming educators. We discussed some of these opportunities and the specific skill sets required for such roles. We also chatted about the importance of a clear motivation for studying Science in order to achieve good results in it, discussing the prevalence of practices whereby students are encouraged and even forced to study Science if they have good marks. 

Lastly, we engaged in a session whereby we spoke on matters related to Olympiads, specifically the process of taking part in Olympiads and how to best prepare for them. We focused mainly on the Astronomy Olympiad as that happens to be an area of personal expertise for me. 

In conclusion, the webinar was a good experience for me in interacting with Science enthusiasts in our country. I am hopeful that the experience was equally good for the students participating in the webinar. 

[Mr. Bijaya Chandra Luitel was an absolute winner at the National Astronomy Olympiad held in 2016 and 2017. He received Honorable Mention (HM) at International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) in 2016 and 2017 held in Bhubaneshwar, India and Phuket, Thailand respectively]