Thar Foundation ignites the spark for science in children of Thar.

Thousands of children from across Thar gathered with excitement to play, learn, imagine, explore and discover the wonders of science at TDF MagnifiScience Thar Exhibition. TDF MagnifiScience Thar Exhibition is being organized in collaboration with The Dawood Foundation; Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC); Engro Corporation and Engro Powergen Thar (Pvt.) Limited.

TDF MagnifiScience Exhibition is a collaborated effort of some of Pakistan's leading corporations and public sector organisations along with academia, entrepreneurs and specialists in various science fields to promote the culture of science, technology and critical thinking in the country. The exhibition was held in Karachi in 2016 and 2017 and was the biggest science exhibition in the country in terms of attendance, reach and impact.

The Science Exhibition aims to make quality education accessible for all and encourage the quest for Science in a remote area like Thar where literacy rate is quite low. The idea of bringing TDF MagnifiScience to Thar stemmed from Thar Foundation’s philosophy to create avenues for children and students of Thar to interact with functional school experience.

TDF MagnifiScience Thar Exhibition is a two-day event which is free of charge for public to experience science through various interactive activities and exhibits made by professionals. Enthusiastic children explored interesting themes such as Optical Illusions, Forces and Motion, Sound, Mind Games and Health. Each theme has exhibits designed by professionals to explain the basic principles of science and their practical demonstration.

In Optical Illusion theme, children were amazed when they saw the ‘Talking Head Illusion’ where one sees the head without the body and Infinity Box which creates endless duplicates of your faces. Exhibits in Health theme gave children an enriching learning experience about human body including showing how veins and arteries work and how different human body functions.

Young scientists formed groups to make structures with dowels and rubber bands in Forces and Motion theme while some engineered pathways with PVC pipes. Observing forces like magnetic fields and sound waves through demonstration thrilled children in the theme.
Commenting on the success of the first TDF MagnifiScience exhibition, Sabeen Shah – Manager Education for Thar Foundation said:

“Thar Foundation aims to provide access to quality education to all students and children of Islamkot as part of its adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals accelerated model. Although Thar ranks low on Human Development Index, we believe that it has great potential and talent in terms of its students. The TDF MagnifiScience Thar will help hone the interest of these children towards science and learning and will eventually prove to be a game changer in the region.”

A large number of attendees belonging from all walks of life including politicians, educationists, specialists, entrepreneurs, science clubs, environmentalists and many others attended the exhibition. It was also open for the public and private schools in Thar, coalescing on a single platform to talk and exploring the wonders of science.

Sharing her views on hosting the exhibition in Thar, General Manager of The Dawood Foundation Syed Fasihuddin Biyabani said:

“TDF MagnifiScience is nationally recognized as an innovative method of promoting science literacy in society through informal learning. It is encouraging to see that students and teachers of Thar showing enthusiasm to learn science. We believe that it is important to give the students of Thar a chance to experience science like their counterparts in the metropolis.”

Sharing his experience with the TDF MagnifiScience Thar Exhibition, Mohammad Khan from TDF said:

“While aggregating the MagnifiScience to Thar this time we went ahead and learnt the different scientific reasoning in the ingenious lifestyle of Thar, such as its architecture, earthenware, water reservoirs. It was fascinating for us to learn and analogize it to modern techniques. I think MagnifiScience has become a two-way process for us, with self-learning as well as a public education.”

TDF MagnifiScience is open for public and is being held at TCF School, Engro Campus, Islamkot Tharparkar on 26th and 27th October from 9am to 4pm.