NCERT award for school teacher from Amritsar district

Tribune news service

 Amritsar, March 25, 2021

 Pankaj Sharma, a teacher at the Government Middle School, Bhoewali, is not new to winning laurels, especially in the field of science. The self-confessed citizen scientist, who has been actively planning and implementing innovative initiatives of learning for his students, Pankaj has added to his list of achievements by getting selected for the NCERT award for year 2019-20.

 Pankaj’s has won the recognition for his project that he submitted for the NCERT”s National Awards for Innovative practices and experiments in education for schools and teacher education institutions. He is among the 28 teachers from across the country to receive the award. He will receive a cash prize of Rs 10,000 and a certificate from NCERT under the award. The only other recipients of the award from Punjab are three other teachers, two from Ludhiana and one from Faridkot.

 His project was on the subject of assessing and enhancing environmental awareness among the elementary schools students. “I had been working for long on building a scientific attitude among students and for the project, I had selected four schools; two from border areas and two from semi urban areas. My study brought out the significance of practical learning as kids, who learned through practical and environment-based learning were able to become more aware and sensitive towards various ecological issues we are facing currently. Also, innovative learning methods resulted in bringing up the levels of scientific aptitude among kids,” said Sharma. He has been working with his students to create kitchen gardens at his school and the village, the kids learning natural farming techniques while they maintain the gardens.

 He has previously mentored a few of his students to design prototypes of innovative machines and compete in national competitions in the field science and research. He has been running village science club in two villages for past 10 years, engaging local community and his students to think out of the box. In November last year, he had discovered three asteroids and got them registered under his name under the Asteroid Search campaign sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).