|
Young World
Brush with Science
NIVEDITA GANGULY
|
The National Children’s Science Congress held in Visakhapatnam recently saw participants from all over the country.
|
Photo: K. R. Deepak
At the exhibition: Curious minds.
Young scientists had an inspirational brush with science and technology and a host of noted scientists and Nobel laureates at the National Children’s Science Congress held as part of the 95th Indian Science Congress at Visakhapatnam recently.
More than 8,000 delegates participated in the grand meet that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Nearly 300 students representing different States displayed their projects on the focal theme ‘Biodiversity – Nurture Nature for Future’ at the Science exhibition. The genesis of the congress can be traced to an experiment in Gwalior in the early 1990s that involved children in small scientific projects of relevance to their immediate society. The National Council for Science and Technology Communication and the Department of Science and Technology of the Union Government played a key role in promoting the congress. The organisation of the event itself is a laborious process and has multi-level elimination process so that only the best projects make it to the National Science Congress. Around 8,00,000 students from all parts of the country participate in the congress at all levels every year and two or three of the best projects selected in the finals make it to the annual session. This year’s highlights were the inspiring lectures by M.S. Swaminathan, C. Mohan, chief scientist of IBM India and a brief interaction with Nobel laureate Robert Curl.
Innovation and skill
Unlike the conventional science exhibitions, the participants develop a project, collect data and show the result. Students of Chaman Lal Senior public School, Sector-II Panchkula (Haryana) devised a unique way of making biodegradable plastics from chicken feathers. The enthusiastic youngsters faced several rounds of failures and before finally discovering the unique formula of transforming plastic out of the feathers. For the first time a group from the Northeast state of Mizoram too participated. The students presented their projects on rare species of orchids found in their state.
An interesting stall was the ‘real rocket launcher’ project by students of Planetarium, Warangal. Students from Kakatiya Merit School, Bhimavaram, collected a number of nests of migratory birds and highlighted the importance of preserving the nesting habitats of the avian creatures.
The group from B.B.C. Public School, Bareilly, developed an interesting project on bio-plastic and bio-fuel from corn cubs.
Apart from this, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Indian Navy, The Indian Space Research Organisation and The National Remote Sensing Agency also participated in the expo.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
|
