Chemistry Olympiad Exposure Camp

Chemistry Olympiad Exposure Camp
November 21 - 24, 2016

Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) is a National Centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. The broad goals of the Centre are to promote equity and excellence in science and mathematics education from primary school to undergraduate college level. It is India's nodal centre for Olympiad programmes in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy.

We are happy to invite applications from Junior college/high school teachers (teaching at X to XII class), involved in teaching CHEMISTRY for the exposure camp to Chemistry Olympiad that will be held at HBCSE from November 21-24, 2016. Only the teachers employed in schools that are recognized by state and central government education boards are eligible to apply.
Originally, Olympiad is a movement which started in erstwhile USSR region with a very strong educational goal of exposing pre-university students to what is meaningful and challenging about a given subject so that they may be inspired to pursue the subject. The program has evolved in form of competitions involving challenging theoretical and experimental problems that touch the frontiers of the subject but are solvable by a senior secondary school student.

On the surface, the olympiad program is a challenge for the students, but if one looks into its dynamics, it is infact a challenging and unique opportunity for the teaching community of the given discipline. It has enriched our conceptual understanding of chemistry and its pedagogy as it requires our engagement with the subject at historical, philosophical, practical, and conceptual level.

We invite you to this exposure camp to share our learning and help you gain experience of this process. The exposure camp will consist of pedagogical sessions related to concepts in chemistry that are an integral part of the experimental and theoretical components of the Chemistry Olympiad. The participating teachers will be sent link of some of the past Olympiad problems. After studying the problems, each participant would solve at least one problem before coming to the camp. During the camp, we would discuss your reflections on the problem solving process and how problem designing process can be modified for meaningful assessment.

If you are interested in participating in this camp, please send the completed application form (which can be downloaded with a link at the bottom of this page) to us on or before October 3, 2016. The list of selected teacher participants will be uploaded on our website by October 10, 2016.

All the participants will be eligible for to and fro travel fare as per the entitlement (maximum only upto II AC). During the workshop Tea/snacks/Lunch will be provided to all participants. Accommodation will be provided to the outstation participants in HBCSE guest house.

Click here for Chemistry Olympiad Exposure Camp Application Form