A Ph.D. holder from ISRO, Dr. Megha Bhatt holds several accolades to her credit along with being the founder of an experiential learning platform for Science- SciKnowTech. Vyapaar Jagat interacted with Dr. Bhatt to understand the journey and the way forward for this unique concept.
How SciKnowTech became synonymous to ‘Experiential Teaching for Science’?
SciKnowTech’s journey commenced in December 2014 with a small group of children at home. “The Idea generated from my own son and children around. Only conceptual learning or only exposing children to experiments/models, does not suffice for learning science. Children know how to do the experiments watching Youtube videos but do not know why that is happening and I realized that I need to step up and answer their questions. Thereby, with the philosophy of “Exposure leads to Exploration” came up the idea of- SciKnowTech- a break-through in experiential science leaning,” shares Dr. Bhatt.
Post inception, it has now conducted more than 500 workshops in Schools, Clubs and Villages, along with over with 70 Teachers Training. Presently it has 125 children enrolled in year long learning program and overall more than 25000 children have been exposed to the concept of experiential learning through this platform, over the last 5 years.
Uniqueness of the platform and the sincerity of its owners and employees has today made it a renowned name not only in Ahmedabad but also in Gujarat. But Speaking about the platform, Dr. Bhatt shared, “SciKnowTech is a platform of ‘Experiential Teaching’ of Science. Because the main aim is to develop scientific temperament and aptitude in children up to Grade 9, using various languages of learning, by including theory. Model-making and practicals, providing an overall experience holistic experience to the children.”
“Indian cities either have rot-learning tuition classes or handful of model-based science centres. But no one combines the two to provide holistic application-based learning and that is why the concepts never get cleared in children’s mind. But this vacuum became the starting point of SciKnowTech, where we combine theoretical/conceptual grade-wise learning of science with multiple languages of learning in the form of standard-wise curriculum,” added Dr. Bhatt
There are five different modules in the business model of SciKnowTech, which are-
- Year-long programs for children at the academy (where children come to the academy as per their standard / grade every week – Grade 2 to 9)
- Workshops in schools for students and teachers training so that the trained teachers can spread the knowledge and cater to a larger set of audience
- Running Science Clubs in schools with DIY kits
- Getting associated in CSR activities for reaching Grassroots level
- Conducting Science theme-based birthday parties to have larger societal impact.
Way Forward Vision
To further spread knowledge through this platform, Dr. Bhatt’s team continuously engages with Parents of school-going children, Teachers, Principals, Trustees, Schools, and Corporates.
Based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, SciKnowTech intends to spreads its knowledge in various parts of the country and eventually spread its wings globally.
Sharing her vision, Dr. Bhatt said, “Our larger goal or vision is to spread the knowledge of science in a meaningful way and encourage children to take up curiosity-based and application-based learning of science. Overall goal is for people to believe ‘Think Science – Think SciKnowTech’. We started with 22 children and last year we had 65 children enrolled and this year we crossed 100. Five years down the line, the scalability needs to be sustained by employing more tutors in-house to ensure more number of batches. At the same time, the academy needs to be extended to other areas of Ahmedabad and eventually in cities of Gujarat and India with the like minded partners. Beyond year-long programmes, we also plan to increase exposure to workshops and teacher’s trainings.”
Core Team
Co-Founder Dr. Megha Bhatt
Dr. Bhatt who conceived the idea is an educationist and scientist with over 22 years of experience in teaching and research. Also as an entrepreneur, she holds several accolades to her credit including Digital woman 2017(Disruption). Gujarat Innovation Society (Trendsetter), National start-up, innovation summit (best start-up), and GUSEC Social Impact Award. Her passion towards teaching and research helps SciKnowTech not only as an experiential science academy but also research-cultivating module for children.
She has a strong academic background with a Masters’s in Botany (Mithibai College, Mumbai) and a Doctorate (Ph.D) in Environmental Science from ISRO, Ahmedabad.
As a scientist, but she has accomplished a prestigious project under the WOS-A scheme, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.
She is currently associated as visiting faculty to various universities. Also, she has acted as the district, state & national evaluator in the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) along with undertaking its teacher’s training program.
She is associated with government and also private institutions at the local and national levels as a teachers’ trainer & associate/consultant for various topics on science.
Co-founder Mr. Saleel Bhatt
Mr. Bhatt is a management post-graduate (and pursuing Ph.D.), specializing in marketing and branding, which helps make the concept known to the world and also with his networking skill. The brand has reached not only in Ahmedabad. But has also started spreading its wings outside the city and the country. So, he is a visiting faculty in the marketing field in various management schools.
Learning from the Leader
We spoke to Dr. Bhatt on her personal journey and also learning’s to enable our readers to learn from her story.
Sharing her insights on ‘Work-Life Balance’, Dr. Bhatt said, “ I have eventually learnt to be a multi-tasker by managing various portfolios and giving proper and proportionate time to each task. It also helps when you have the most supporting partner (my husband Saleel) in the same profession. I have enjoyed being a mother first, then a scientist and now an entrepreneur!
Speaking on her motivation, she said, “ In general, I have been inspired by life stories of so many great scientists. But who started their journey with just basics. And also their passion and curiosity towards getting a solution to a problem took them to great levels.”
On her measurement of success, Dr. Bhatt shared, “I consider myself successful because I believe that success is when you see a sparkle of curiosity in children’s eyes. Because through SciKnowTech I have been able to bring that.”
Sharing her sign-off note, with aspiring entrepreneurs, she said. “At any age, one can become an entrepreneur if one is confident about one’s own expertise and also one is creative enough to innovate and implement an idea!”
While giving a message to the readers, she said, “Remember, exposure leads to exploration and exploration to innovation. So, expose yourself/your children to various forms of education/sports/art and then focus on what they love to do or are passionate about. As it is rightly said in 3 Idiots –
“Success ke peeche mat bhago. Kabil bano kabil. Kambyabi jhak maar ke peeche ayegi”.
Contact SciKnowTech
| Contact To | Dr. Megha Bhatt, Mr Saleel Bhatt |
| Website | http://sciknowtech.com |
| Mobile | 9825504389 / 9825505969 |
| SciKnowTech@gmail.com | |
| https://www.facebook.com/SciKnowTech |
