Moonshot Wheels
20,000 kids and counting…
It is an exciting time at the TeamIndus Foundation for Excellence, with Moonshot Wheels having been on the road for 100 days and counting, and over 20,000 kids being a part of the mobile space fair so far.
We celebrated this milestone at the Government Senior Secondary School, Sanganer, during the Moonshot Wheels bus’s stop there. The Foundation, along with our collaborators TeamIndus, travelled to Jaipur for a one-day fun fest designed to deepen engagement with space, to inspire kids to dream bigger and reach higher. Three winners of an online contest came to participate with the students in the space-themed quiz. Children painted a mural of the solar system, filled with notes on their aspirations. The children also took part in a DIY-rover making activity and elocution.
The milestone has also been an opportunity to reflect on the results we have had so far, how we can improve our delivery and material in future and to take stock.
Having travelled over 3,000 km of often unkind road, in sweltering heat, the Moonshot bus was in need of a few repairs and some general TLC.
Thanks to our implementation partners Agastya Foundation, we have taken a taste of space to children in cities, towns and villages, where hands-on opportunities for learning are few, and the world of rocket ships and spacecraft are often no more than headlines in a paper, too far removed to even fathom.
The journey so far
The bus started out on February 16, at Jakkur, and has covered Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and is currently en route to NCR. At each location, the bus arrives at a predetermined school and sets up base for two weeks. The school’s children are trained over two days about the various exhibits and models by Agastya Foundation’s teachers, including the phases of the moon, constellations, Newton’s laws of motion, why we only see one side of the moon and how telescopes work.
Once the trainers are ready, children from schools in the region are brought to experience the bus, with its simulated lunar surface, lunar lander and rover model, and science fair with 16 interactive models. The Young Instructors do the talking, with Agastya Foundation ensuring the delivery is correct. Children from over 100 schools have participated so far in the fair.
In many areas, the bus is stationed at government schools. But where this proves to be a logistical challenge, the host school is a private institution, and participants are from all the local schools, both state-run and private.
Mapping impact
While feedback from children and schools has been overwhelming, there are challenges in mapping impact of an intervention that involves interaction with children over a relatively short period of time.
The Moonshot Wheels program is designed to not just inspire curiosity, but to make a deeper connection with the children who are trained as Young Instructors.
Their exposure to the bus and space fair happens over several days, not hours. And we had a chance to meet two children for whom the experience has caused a significant shift in trajectory.
Ullekh Chaudhari and Jatin Mamtora from C.D. Gandhi English School in Kapadwanj, Gujarat, have plans for not one, but several scientific experiments. Their interest in space started with visits to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Ahmedabad, and they have an annual science fair in their school as well. But this was their first experience of a mission to the moon, and they couldn’t wait to find out how they could continue their journey with the Foundation.
They had travelled several hours by public bus to meet the TeamIndus Foundation in Ahmedabad.
‘We were glad to be a part of Moonshot Wheels in Kapadwanj,’ said Jatin, ‘and we want to come to Bangalore to see the real spacecraft.’
Jatin had been a Young Instructor doing one of the demos at the science fair. Ullekh, who was on the bus, was fascinated by the Orbitron software used to locate satellites, including the International Space Station.
Sometimes, when the ISS is overhead, the children can hear astronaut chatter!
Ullekh and Jatin are now working on an experiment in microgravity. Ullekh wants to explore a career in astronautics and aerospace engineering, while Jatin has his sights firmly set on ISRO.
‘I want to work in India and make ISRO stronger,’ he says.
Ullekh calls his mentors at Agastya Foundation whenever he has a new scientific bee in his bonnet, and our hope is he will continue this journey. So often, such enthusiasm in crushed. ‘My teachers tell me I can never be a scientist because I don’t have the patience,’ he said. We at TeamIndus Foundation believe nothing could be further from the truth.
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