Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Children's science workshop to focus on biodiversity

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shasthrotsavam-2010, a State-level children's science workshop, organised under the Galileo Little Scientist programme of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was inaugurated by Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) scientist S. Rajasekharan here on Tuesday.

The three-day workshop, being held on the Kerala University campus at Kariavattom, will focus on the theme biodiversity in connection with International Year of Biodiversity.

Interacting with students, Mr. Rajasekharan said although the under-developed and developing countries were the richest in biodiversity, it was the advanced countries that exploited the biodiversity of these countries and reaped its benefits.

“Biodiversity is essential to protect food security, economic security and health security. This was known to the founders of Ayurveda centuries back. Charaka Samhita, one of the basic texts of Ayurveda written around 2nd BC, discusses phenomena like climate change,” he said.

SSA State project director K.V. Kunhikrishnan, who presided over the function, said the basic reasons of all environmental problems were systemic.

Biodiversity year

“We are made to believe that we cannot live comfortably without certain things, like plastic for example, and then it becomes part of our life. It is only after realising the mistake that we take up campaigns to reverse what we did. Even the commemoration of International Year of Biodiversity reminds us of such a mistake,” he said.

Head of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries Tresa Radhakrishnan and SSA State programme officer R. Prassannakumar Pillai were also present. Sessions by Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries lecturer A. Bijukumar and Zoology Department head E. Kunhikrishnan were also held.

Around 140 students from Class V to IX and 60 teachers from across the State are participating in the workshop.

Teachers and resource persons from six university departments, including the Department of Botany, Biotechnology, Zoology and the Centre for Bioinformatics, are associating with the workshop.

Experiments

On Wednesday, the students will form groups to conduct experiments and projects on various topics of biodiversity like ‘diversity of fruits on Kariavattom campus', ‘butterfly diversity on Kariavattom campus', ‘body designs in big cats', ‘identification of indicator plants for air pollution', ‘diversity of sea shells on Thiruvananthapuram coast' and ‘diversity and shell selection of hermit crabs'.

The projects will be presented on the concluding day of the workshop.

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