Laughter and excited chatter reverberated in the corridors of St. John’s Vestry Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School as nearly 250 children representing seven city schools participated in a host of competitions as part of the Young Astronomers Talent Search (YATS) on Monday.
Organised by the students of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi (NIT-T), as part of their annual Festember cultural and literary festival’s social responsibility wing, the event focussed on astronomy. It featured contests in model exhibits, elocution, quiz, drawing, essay writing, word games, role-play and debate.
Each contest had two categories for students of standard 6 to 8 and standard 8 to 10. Prizes were handed over to first and second place winners in each category. NITT professors were among those who judged the contestants.
“We wanted to promote awareness of astronomy among students, and as the applications showed us, children are interested in this subject especially because of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s contribution to the field,” Shivaraj J., media relations head of the Festember committee said.
As a group of aspiring quizzers tackled the qualifying written test, students in the adjoining classroom set up astronomy models, mostly centred on the work done by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Explaining the salient features of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), being used to provide accurate real-time positioning and timing services over India and the region extending to 1,500 kilometres around the country, S.K. Adhyushubanan of Class 7-A, Alpha Wisdom Vidyashram said that he was very proud of ISRO scientists who had made such an accurate and localised GPRS system for India.
N.S. Thinesh, B. Sriram, P. Santhosh and Aakash S. Baskar of SBIOA School created an impressive model of space-based solar power which they said would help to solve the world’s energy crisis.
Based on an excerpt from the book ‘What Can I Give: Life lessons from My Teacher - Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,’ students tried to show the usefulness of nano robots that could be sent to outer space and redirected back to earth. Their exhibit won the first prize in the senior category. The drawing contest had ‘Life on another planet’ as its theme. Children could be seen filling up their charts with imaginative ideas, accompanied by detailed colouring. Role-play, debate, word games and essay writing competitions were held simultaneously. Tata Steel and Space Kids were the corporate sponsors of the event.
