Open Space Foundation was started in 2013 by Surender Ponnalagar (23), Bharath Kumar VU3BRE (21), Dinesh Kumar (19) and Anupama Pradeepan (23) - all of whom met at various science events. While Anupama is currently employed, the other three are doing their Masters'.

“Our idea is to take science to rural students. There are many opportunities for students to explore science, but most are unaware of these. We ourselves got to know about it only later. The idea of OSF is to develop science hobbies in children,” he explains.

Initially, the four would travel to different schools with simple science equipment like a telescope, microscope etc to conduct one-day science forums. A couple of years later, they realised that this method was not helping their mission. That's when they came up with Open Science Centres (OSC) in schools.

The first OSC was set up at Municipal Middle School in Tiruppur. “We make it a point to meet students two to three times every week, during non-working days. We have selected 30 students based on interest, with help from teachers, to be trained in OSC,” he adds.

And the very first idea that they introduced to students was the ham radio, also known as amateur radio.

Any student who is over 12 years of age is eligible to obtain a ham radio licence from the government. “There is an easy exam that anyone with basic electrical knowledge can pass. The ham radio hobby is the best way to learn about and discuss science. You can communicate with anyone across the world, share your recent science experiments. It is a very good hobby,” he says, the excitement is evident in his voice.

Media Story - https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/meet-group-tn-youngsters-taking-science-government-schools-112554