WOSCA Science Program (Life-Lab)
Women's organization for Socio-Cultural Awareness (WOSCA) is a voluntary organization born on 20th December 1993 with the commitment to serve the under privileged people. It has been registered under the Society Registration Act XXI of 1860 in the year 1993-94 and registered under FCRA in the year 2000. Since its inception, WOSCA is taking up need-based programs primarily in the areas of livelihood, income generation, health, education child rights, environment conservation, and human resource development. Under WOSCA, Science program for government schools known as 'WOSCA Science Program' was conceived & started in 2013. The objective of WOSCA Science Program project is to make science education fun & engaging for children by building the capacities of teachers. Our Intervention has led to an increment of 42.3 % in children's science scores (in their school exams) & behavioural change in 65 % teachers to adopt Inquiry Based Learning in classrooms.
The rationale for WOSCA to adopt & promote quality science education in schools came from 3 keen observations from their experiences of working with government schools in various capacities:
- Lack of Activity based / Inquiry based learning in schools led to lack of Student Engagement in classrooms, low attendance in schools despite having high enrolments.
- Lack of Teacher exposure / knowledge , accompanied skill gap to use simple & effective science based teaching & learning aids in classrooms to help students participate in the learning process, & achieve better learning outcomes.
- Poor Quality of Science Education in Government & Low income pvt. schools is hampering the inclination of students to choose Science & Engineering, Research & Development related streams at college & professional level.
The program aims to innovate simple products that spark creativity and problem-solving skills in children, and to devise effective pedagogical processes that enable teachers to bridge their own knowledge-, skill-, and mind-set gaps to facilitate holistic learning.
