Khagol-128-OCT-2021

| KHAG L | No. 128 - OCTOBER 2021 | 11 The IAUhas recognized various efforts across the world to put up online outreach to keep the public connected with astronomy communities, towards the beginning of the pandemic inMarch 2020. Out of the selected 50 events from 31 different countries, IUCAASciPoP teamhaswon the first prize in the “Community Engagement” category, and got honourablementions for the “Most Innovative Event”, and the “Largest Number of Registered Events”. Activities like Outreach Activities (Online) Astronomy@Home : Award by IAU Astronomy Crosswords, along with Sci-Fi Enterprise - Science Fiction Story and Poetry Writing Competition, Moon Challenge, Zero Shadow Day, and the live webcast during the Annular Solar Eclipse of June 2020, were considered for these awards. These were coordinated by Samir Dhurde, Shivom Gupta, SonalThorve, Ishan Shinde, and Atharva Pathak (all fromIUCAA). IUCAA Online Teachers Training: State and National Levels Special programmes for teachers were arranged during August 28 – 29, 2021, for the teachers in Maharashtra, and during September 4 – 5, 2021 for teachers across India. While IUCAA Online Teachers Training (IOTT) State Level was held completely in Marathi, and IUCAA National Level Online Teachers Training (INLOTT) National Level had English as the language of communication. Nearly 500 teachers participated from all over Maharashtra in IOTT, and INLOTT was attended by about 700 teachers. The topics covered in the sessions were 'Basic Astronomy' and 'Science at School Level'. Rupesh Labade (IUCAA) coordinated these training sessions, and were conducted by Rupesh Labade, Atharva Pathak, Shivani Pethe, and Tushar Purohit (all fromIUCAA). A similar online training programme was also conducted on July 13, 2021 by Rupesh Labade at the Agastya International Foundation. A total of 400 teachers participated in this training.