The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Research centre aims to catch them young

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Research centre aims to catch them young

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) here has launched a programme to attract talented school students to research activities in life science.

The programme, titled ‘Young Research Talent Search in Life Science,’ will provide a forum for high school students to prepare original and innovative proposals with support from their teachers and scientists. It will be implemented in collaboration with Christ Nagar Higher Secondary School. Students can make use of the advanced facilities at RGCB to pursue their projects.

The programme is essentially meant for schoolchildren and teachers in life science to initiate and execute projects involving independent thinking and creativity. A total of 15 research teams (2 students per team) will be selected for funding every year. The selected students are eligible for fellowship of Rs.2,000/month (maximum of 2 months), apart from the expenses required for project execution. The first phase covers students of Class VIII.

At the pre-selection programme held on August 8, 75 students from different schools in the Thiruvananthapuram Educational District were invited to the RGCB campus, along with their biology teachers.

C.C. Kartha, Cardiovascular research scientist and head of the Cellular and Molecular Cardiology unit at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology delivered a talk on science education and research. From among the participating students, 30 students were selected for the fellowship based on their performance in a science aptitude test. The students also got an opportunity to visit the different laboratories and interact with scientists and research students.

Beyond textbooks

“Most school children are interested in science; however, their scientific knowledge is confined to textbooks. In order to awaken in them an interest in scientific exploration, students need to be encouraged to go beyond textbook knowledge and experience the thrill of experimentation. Our endeavour is aimed at nurturing creative minds,” says T.R. Santhosh Kumar, a scientist attached to the Apoptosis and Cell Signalling unit at RGCB.

“The age of 12 to 20 is the period during which productive and innovative ideas sprout in young minds. That is why we tailored the programme for children in this age group.”

Dr. Kumar said children from government schools did not lag behind their counterparts in CBSE and ICSE schools. “Seven of the 30 children who cleared the pre-selection programme were from government schools and four were from Kendriya Vidyalayas,” he pointed out.

Each research proposal involves a teacher and a maximum of two students and a scientist and a Ph.D. scholar from RGCB. The students will be allowed to work for two months in an appropriate research lab of RGCB during the September- November period.

At the end of the project, the research team has to file a completion report highlighting the achievements and salient features of the project.

A one-day programme will be held at RGCB in December for students to present their projects.

An independent panel will evaluate each project based on the project completion report, performance in the presentation and overall merits of the projects.

The best three projects will receive an attractive cash award of Rs.10,000 and all the team members will receive merit certificates.

Outstanding project teams recommended by the committee will be encouraged to present their observations at various science meetings like the National Science Congress and various children’s science congress’.

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