Need of Environment and Space Technologies Education in Indian School Curriculum
- October 25, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Education, IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue X, October 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Need of Environment and Space Technologies Education in Indian School Curriculum
Dr. Jayachandra Kannemadugu1, K. Hoyasala Devi2
1Regional Director, Centre for Environment and Development, Hyderabad, India
2B.Tech, ECE, G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology & Science, Hyderabad, India
I. INTRODUCTION
It’s more than two decades in India, the computer education/ICT (Information and Computer Technology) was introduced into the school curriculum and majority of Schools including those run by central or State Governments, have good infrastructure with basic software and internet. Space technologies i.e., the technologies involved in acquiring Earth’s information such as Sensing/acquiring Earth’s pictures through Aircrafts, Satellites, Drones etc., and collecting local ground/field information by using GPS receiver and computing into digital maps (GIS database) have become very popular in recent times across the Globe.
Few major advantages of the present day school children are that they have access to see the high resolution satellite pictures of their houses/gardens/farm lands, their villages/towns with surrounding resources in true colors through several geo-portals. This would generate curiosity among school children to identify their known/visited locations and tagging field photos to such locations/places. Secondly they have got exposure on GPS through latest mobile phones which create interest to track or navigate places during their travel to schools, colleges and other tourist locations. Unlike in Nineties with limited costly software, today there is plenty of open source software or low cost education licenses of GIS software available in the market. By utilizing such low cost software the students can take-up practicing the mapping concepts at school level itself. Further, the awareness and knowledge on geo-special technologies helps to understand and motivate towards the Environmental concerns which are very crucial in the present day’s global scenario. The paper addresses few reasons and demands for a practical oriented education on Space sciences/technologies along with Environment management to the school and graduate level students in their curriculums with proper importance.
