MITHI – Hundreds of children from Tharparkar region in south Pakistan gathered to play, learn, imagine, explore, and discover the wonders of science at the Dawood Foundation’s (TDF) two-day Magnifi-Science Thar Exhibition on October 27, The Express Tribune reported.
“It’s encouraging to see students and teachers of Tharparkar Desert showing enthusiasm to learn science. We believe that it’s important to give the students of the remote region a chance to experience science like their counterparts in the metropolis,” TDF General Manager, Syed Fasihuddin Biyabani said.
TDF Magnifi-Science Exhibition is an initiative that brings Pakistan’s leading companies and public sector organizations along with academia, entrepreneurs and specialists in various science fields on a single platform to promote the culture of science, technology and critical thinking in the Muslim Asian country.
The Pakistani capital city, Karachi, hosted the exhibition during its two previous editions in 2016 and 2017. It’s the biggest science exhibition in the country in terms of attendance, reach and impact as it attracts over 50,000 visitors each year.
However, the event’s administrations seek to make quality education accessible for all and encourage the quest for science in remote areas like Tharparkar Desert where the literacy rate is quite low.
Enthusiastic children explored interesting themes such as optical illusions, forces, and motion, sound, mind games and health. Each theme has exhibits designed by professionals to explain the basic principles of their practical demonstration.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Thar Foundation, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC), and Engro Corporation and Engro Powergen Thar Pvt Limited.
Thar Foundation Education Manager, Sabeen Shah said, “We aim to provide access to quality education to all students as part of our adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals accelerated model. Although Tharparkar region ranks low on the Human Development Index, we believe that it has great potential and talent in terms of its students.”
The desert region of Tharparkar lies in the Sindh province of Pakistan. According to the 1998 national census, Muslims constituted 59% of the region’s population, while the Hindus represented 41%.
Scientific Legacy in Pakistan
The science sector has played an important role in Pakistan’s infrastructure since its independence. The famous Pakistani theoretical physicist Abdus Salam won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the electroweak interaction.
In chemistry, Salimuzzaman Siddiqui was the first scientist to bring the therapeutic constituents of the neem tree to the attention of natural products chemists.
The brilliant Pakistani neurosurgeon Ayub Ommaya invented the Ommaya reservoir, a system for treatment of brain tumors and other brain conditions. Moreover, the worldwide famous nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan is the founder of Pakistan’s integrated atomic bomb project making it the sole Nuclear Muslim country in the world.
The successful launch of its first rocket into space made Pakistan the first South Asian country to have achieved such a task. Successfully producing and launching the nation’s first space satellite in 1990, Pakistan became the first Muslim country to put a satellite into space.
Currently, Pakistan is also the only Muslim country that maintains an active research presence in Antarctica. Since 1991, Pakistan has maintained two summer research stations and one weather observatory on the continent and plans to open another full-fledged permanent base in Antarctica.