India’s First Virtual Science Lab Launched

On 22^nd November, 2021, Union Minister of Science & Technology launched India’s first Virtual Science Lab for children under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Jigyasa programme.

• CSIR has partnered with IIT Bombay to develop this virtual lab platform.

The Virtual Science Lab: Aim: The lab aims to provide quality research exposure and innovative pedagogy for school students to drive their scientific curiosity based on an online interactive medium with simulated experiments, pedagogy based content, videos, chat forums, animations, gaming, quiz, facility sharing, webinars, etc.

• Target Group: Students of the standard VI to XII (11-18 years) who would like to explore science.
• Facilities: The key highlights of the virtual lab are open source platform; access content in regional languages; scientist / researchers support; knowledge upgradation for teachers and students and much more.

Significance: The virtual science lab will facilitate curiosity driven research based concepts, encourage higher order thinking skills, promote entrepreneurship and develop passion about science.

• It will take science to all segments of students in every corner of the country, and will help in catching them young.
• The new lab is also in tune with the National Education Policy (NEP), where students are allowed to choose any subject and the concept of streams has been disbanded.