Activity based learning or in other words action research is helpful in promoting children and other curious learners to be inquisitive, observant and innovative thinkers. Apart from being helpful in development of knowledge in children in playful way, activity based learning also helps in developing social skills in learners as well as practitioners through the process of planning, designing, organizing, group work activities, discussions, communication, logical arguments and mutual cooperation. It also helps in construction of knowledge in learners about the facts through hands-on experience instead of rot learning of textual information given in books.
Interest leads to attentive minds and this helps children in learning the facts in accordance to their pace and time taken to learn, without putting any stress of time and pace at which they learn. International Bureau of Education, the UNESCO Centre of Excellence in curriculum and related matters has also stressed on concept of Child Centric Approach i.e. placing the child at the notional centre of the learning process in which they are active participants based on their choices of learning activities.
Founders of the Science Centre (Gwl.) Madhya Pradesh had firm belief that child centric approach needs to be placed at the notional centre of the learning process in which children are active participants based on their choices of learning activities, and started working in science popularization through design & development of activity based scientific programs. In 1988 Science Centre launched People's Science Movement as its flagship program and organised science popularization activities in the most backward areas of Madhya Pradesh to help parents and through them their children to get meaningful direction towards learning of day to day science in interesting way. In the course of People's Science Movement various programmes and activities were undertaken at to reach common masses, school and college communities, these included programs on environment education, nature camps, surveys on status and health of local natural resources, science popularization rallies & marches (Vigyan Yatra), science quizzes, writings, shows & plays, workshops, trainings, seminars, shows on scientific explanation of miracles, use of mass media, folk arts, peoples science festivals, campaigns on local environmental issues, health centered activities and constitution of Children's Science Council's (Baal Vigyan Parishad) in schools etc.
Science Centre also designed, developed and distributed modules and activity kits that would help in developing qualitative efficiency in the curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities along with assuring equity at gender, economic class, social background and geographical reach. Large number of training programmes were also organised for and in collaboration with other organisations in different parts of the country that helped in wider spread of peoples science movement.
During the past two decades the importance of natural environment has primarily being recognized more reposing on to the irreparable changes caused due to destructive anthropogenic activities. Nature has its own mechanisms of indicating its health and responses towards anthropogenic changes. By examining the ecological (natural) indicators one can know the status of various component of nature and can determine whether the component is in good condition or in bad condition. In the study of nature and its components, as per objective and need one can determine the natural indicators which has to be examined. Some broad examples of natural indicators are physico-chemical characteristics of water, air, soil & atmosphere; composition & functions taking place in biodiversity; structural, morphological and physiological characteristics of living organisms; interactions taking place between living and nonliving components of nature; positions of celestial bodies and their effects on functions of biosphere on the Earth etc.