The government is working on a plan to disseminate information on basic science among visitors at the Indira Gandhi Science Complex housing the planetarium.

Christened the Science Show, the plan would involve simple science lessons and practical experiments to help visitors, especially children, grasp the different theories easily and understand the subject better.

Officials in the science and technology department are busy chalking out the details of the plan right now.

Director, science and technology department, Atul Sinha told The Telegraph on Monday: "Every day there is a decent footfall at the planetarium with a lot of the visitors coming to watch the stars, planets and the different shows. The shows last for 40 minutes, following which another batch of visitors proceed to the auditorium for the show. The department has planned to utilise the time visitors have to wait between the shows by disseminating information on basic science lessons. We believe this would help the visitors, most of whom are students and youngsters, understand science better and develop an interest for it. We hope the project to start soon."

At present, four shows on space and the solar system of 40 minutes each are shown at the Indira Gandhi Science Complex.

For the new project, the emphasis is on keeping the lessons and experiments simple.

"One doesn't have to get extra tickets for the science show. The department is planning to hire some research scholars who will conduct the lessons and experiments. They would be paid accordingly. Simple scientific experiments, which are able to answer some basic science questions, will be shared. A lot of people come to the planetarium from the rural areas. Many of them are children. So, this initiative will help them apply the lessons in their school too."

Youngsters are excited about the new initiative of the state government.

Pratik Kumar, a Class VI student of Loyola High School, said: "These showswould help school students like us understand environment science and other topics in our syllabus. I went to the planetarium a few years ago but did not find the facilities interesting. Now that the science shows are planned, I would love to visit the planetarium. There are many simple questions on basic science that come to mind and the practical experiments on the show would solve them. So, I am really interested. I want to know how sound and light travel and I hope that the science show will help me on this in a simple way. I also hope our school takes us to the planetarium on a tour."

An official part of the team devising the project said: "A simple experiment would be to cover a plant with a polythene pack for some time till the leaves turn moist and then explain to the visitors how plants emit carbon dioxide. These are simple theories that can be shown with simple experiments. There would also be some videos on scientific experiments. Queries on the experiments shown would then be answered. We want to make the show interactive and interesting for the people. Apart from gazing and learning about the solar system, visitors would be able to learn about science too."

ON THE CARDS

New project  
♦ Science Show, explaining lessons and experiments simply
When & where
♦Between the regular 40-minute shows on the solar system at the Indira Gandhi Science Complex
Duration of science show
♦40 minutes
Objective
♦Help visitors, especially students, understand science better and develop interest for subject
Hope
♦Students expect simple experiments to make school lessons simpler and interesting 
History 
The Bihar Council of Science and Technology constructed Indira Gandhi Science Complex for Rs 11 crore. Then chief minister Lalu Prasad inaugurated the facility on March 21, 1993, and it was opened to the public on April 1 of the same year