Agastya Research
What is it?
The Agastya Research Institute serves as the knowledge and evidence backbone of Agastya’s mission to spark curiosity and transform learning. Rooted in field-based insights and experiential education, the institute conducts rigorous research to understand how children learn, what drives curiosity, and how innovative science education models can create meaningful impact at scale. By combining data, behavioural insights, and on-ground experimentation, the institute aims to strengthen Agastya’s programs (Discovery), challenge conventional approaches to education (Disruption), and share actionable knowledge with the wider ecosystem (Dissemination). Through collaborations with academic partners, educators, and global research teams, it aspires to influence practice and policy while making learning more engaging, relevant, and accessible for all.
Vision
To be the global benchmark for research that advances learning and societal progress through curiosity and discovery.
Mission
Discover: Generate scientific evidence and insights to strengthen and continuously improve Agastya’s programs and impact.
Disrupt: Challenge and redefine conventional learning paradigms by developing and validating curiosity-led, experiential education models.
Disseminate: Share research, evidence, and stories widely to influence policy, practice, and public understanding of how children learn best.
The Team
Global Research Directors
Hari Sridhar
(Texas A&M, Agastya)
Adithya Pattabhiramaiah
(Georgia Tech)
Agastya Research Institute Leadership
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Hamsa Latha
(AGM, R&D)
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Sujal Raychura
(Data Analyst)
Global Research Affiliates
Yulin Chen
(Georgia Tech)
Huanhuan Shi
(Texas A&M)
Hyejeong Kim (Georgia Tech)
Muzeeb Shaik
(Indiana University)
John Costello
(University of Notre Dame)
Research Publications
Working Papers / Ongoing Research
The Science Of Belonging: How Agastya's Mobile Science Labs Are Rewriting-Who Science Is For
This executive summary is based on the working paper Experiential Learning and Gender-Stereotype Attitudes in Science Education: Evidence from a Field Intervention by Muzeeb Shaik (Indiana University), Huanhuan Shi (Texas A&M University), Adithya Pattabhiramaiah (Georgia Tech), and Shrihari Sridhar (Texas A&M University). The full paper is available upon request.
For inquiries about this research, please contact Shrihari Sridhar at ssridhar@mays.tamu.edu
Short Research Briefs
Examining the Impact of Activity-Based Learning on Students' Affective Outcomes Evidence from Agastya International Foundation
In thousands of government school classrooms across India, children learn by listening. They sit, they copy, they memorize. For students from low-income rural families, where a textbook may be the only book in the house, this is often all that school has ever offered. Agastya International Foundation believes that is not enough. For over two decades, Agastya has brought science to life for underserved children through hands-on experimentation, peer discovery, and the simple but radical act of letting a child build something and figure out why it works. This study examined what that experience does to a student on the inside. Researchers followed 195 Grade 9 students from government schools in Andhra Pradesh through Agastya's campus programs and measured six outcomes: interest, engagement, understanding, confidence, concentration, and cognitive ease. The findings show that activity-based learning meaningfully improves how students experience learning, and does so equitably, regardless of gender, family background, or prior academic performance. The research also offers a clear design principle: variety and quality of sessions matter more than frequency. Agastya's model works. Sustaining that impact requires continued investment in how instructors are trained and how programs are designed.
Effect of Agastya International Foundation's Bio-Diverse Environment on Physiological, Psychological, Cognitive and Social Attributes of Students
For students from rural government schools, the natural world rarely enters the classroom. A tree is a diagram. An ecosystem is something to memorise. Agastya International Foundation’s 172-acre Creativity Campus in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, exists to change that — a living, breathing learning environment of medicinal herb gardens, open-air ecology labs, and forests teeming with rare birds and insects, visited by over 500 students every day. This study asked what that experience actually does to a child — not what they know after, but what they feel, how they think, and how they connect with others. Surveying 190 students across four schools and three states, researchers found that Agastya’s bio-diverse campus significantly improved physiological well being, emotional state, cognitive functioning, and social behaviour. Students felt less stressed, more curious, more cooperative, and more motivated to protect the environment.
Data & Insights Hub
Daily Session Assessment Analysis - 2023-24
This report presents insights from Agastya’s Daily Session Assessments. It demonstrates score improvements and changes in the number of attempts across variables such as state, gender, subject/topic, and individual questions. It also includes a framework to evaluate question effectiveness by comparing students’ pre-session and post-session performance.
