SCIENCE FOR YOUTH

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Introduction:

NAYS, a volunteer organization working for Pakistani Youth started a major project of Science for Youth (S4Y) which will definitely play a great role in the grooming of youngsters, the bright future of ours. This project is unique of its type as it is majorly focusing on school and college students. Aim of S4Y is not to focus University students as all the other ongoing projects of NAYS are focusing only university students through all the major aspects.

Major aim of S4Y project is career counseling of younger students.Its main objective is to educate them at the grass root level that there are many other noble fields of science and technology where there is a pace for them to prove themselves. There is a need to make their minds to think out of the box so that they not only focus on MBBS, BDS, MBA, Engineering fields but also try some other challenging and rapidly advancing corners of science. Target of S4Y is to create awareness among students about different arenas of specialization.

S4Y team is conducting sessions, seminars, and healthy activities just to inculcate students with different terminologies and to give knowledge of various disciplines of science. For this purposeteam has demonstrators in each area or city working under area coordinator. Demonstrators deliver lectures to the school and college students of the respective area especially rural areas where there is a strong need to create awareness. All area coordinators report about their district activities to province coordinator on monthly basis who ultimately report to country coordinator.Project coordinator manages all the above mentioned setup and elaborates new tasks to be targeted to fulfill the task of S4Y project.

Further goals of S4Y include the induction of students and to provide them with industrial internships so that S4Y team can work as a bridge between academia and industry to fulfill this gap.

Another major target of S4Y is thebrain storming of our youth which is neglected by current teaching methodologies through spoon feeding. S4Y aim condemns spoon feeding with a belief that if someone is blessed with brain then he/she should prove it functional. S4Y team is training students to develop the habit to ponder over things in a unique creative way. To accomplish this aim, at the end of every session, demonstrators throw such questions which would make students to think on various aspects using their own mental power.

S4Y is a huge project and needs a lot of time because it is coming up with long term strategies for the development of Pakistani youth. Support and guidance of the respected authorities is required for the better and effective outcomes of S4Y.

STRATEGIES:

A team of young qualified researchers has been established from all over the Pakistan for this noble aim. S4Y team is comprised of the following:

• Project coordinator
• Country Coordinator (Male and Female)
• Province Coordinators (Male and Female)
• District Coordinators (Male and Female)
• Demonstrators (Male and Female)

OBJECTIVES:

Following are the main objectives of this project:

• Science lectures on new discoveries
• Lectures on important science issues (health, food, environment etc)
• Performing small and easy experiments to promote curiosity
• Laboratory visitations day
• Other possible extracurricular activities to develop the interest of students.
• Interaction could be by means of answering questions they have concerning life science or possible career paths.
• One day meeting with parents to make them aware of uses of science and possible careers choice and development.

EVALUTATION AND CERTIFICATE DISTRIBUTION:

The results are evaluated by:

• A detailed report of each school visited.
• Annual report and ceremony
• An annual meeting to judge the outcome of the project and certificate distribution among the participants.

DURATION:

Initially S4Y team has started with Pilot project of 50 Schools and Colleges in 2012 and on success it will be extended to 100 Schools and colleges each year.

OUTCOMES:

Following will be the objectives of this project:

• To show the youth that science can be a great opportunity for a career.
• To make the students and their parents aware of the importance of scientists to help compete with the global community.
• Motivated young students will choose to be a scientist as their first preference and will be the science leaders in future.

Project Coordinator

SyyadaSamraJafri,

S4y@nays.com.pk

- Participation Form:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFhjaENYbWIxZVFLdnpUSkVBc0JyakE6MQ 

- Download Activity Database
 - District Coordinator
 - Advisory Board

About Project Coordinator:

Ms.SyyadaSamraJafri was born in Lahore, Pakistan. She received her early education from Government Kinnaird High School for Girls, Lahore. She is a position holder throughout her academic career and participated in many co-curricular activities including games, debates etc. She was the President of Students’ Welfare Society, Vice-President of Talented Students’ Society, School Prefect and member of Environmental Club Committee in her school life. She did her F.Sc. and B.Sc. from Queen Mary College, Lahore. In her college life, she was selected as the President of Science Society in 2007 and President of Queen Mary College in 2008. After getting distinguished position in Graduation, she did her Masters in Biotechnology with research in Placental Growth Hormones from Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of the Punjab, Lahore. She remained scholarship holder during both years of M.Sc.

Then she got selected for sandwich PhD program on scholarship in 2009 in a national competitionin National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan and completed her M.Phil in Molecular Biology with research in the field of Bioinformatics from CEMBon scholarship. In the meanwhile she got selected for HEC Indigenous scholarship and currently doing her PhD in Molecular Biology with research in Forensic Sciences and Bioinformatics from National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

She is also teaching Biostatistics and Bioinformatics to M.Phil. and Ph.D. Research Scholars on volunteer basis in National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan since 2010.

She is the Project Coordinator of NaeayCharagh Project of National Academy of Young Scientists (NAYS) and Core-Committee member of International Society of Computational Biology, Regional Students Group (ISCB-RSG), Pakistan and member of World Association of Young Scientists (WAYS) and Khwarizmi Science Society.

She has got very good administrative and organizing skills and has shown these skills during her whole academic career by conducting various co-curricular activities. Due to her passion to do something for her beloved country she joined NAYS in 2010. She is among few people who have pioneered some NAYS projects.