After ‘conducting’ a key-hole surgery to remove gall-bladder stone in the ‘emergency room’ at the Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF), which began at the Bhartiya City here on Friday, Satya, Suman and Moses, students of St. Mary’s Boys’ Home, a school for the orphaned in Cox Town, exclaimed, “Wow, it was wonderful.”
Their joy was doubled when an English lady, who helped them in the procedure, told them that they would make ‘excellent surgeons’.
Besides the emergency room, Satya and his friends were taken on a guided tour to various such segments such as ‘adventure robots’, ‘air racers’, ‘electronics and mechanics’ ‘chemical mania’, ‘forensic science — be a spy’ and so on.
In the ‘world of bubbles’ section, Satya and his friends discovered the perfect bubble mixture and designed their own bubble wands to create some incredible and jaw-dropping shapes. They also learnt about the properties of nitrogen and how to transform it from gaseous to liquid form.
After visiting all the sections on display at EISF, Satya, a class 8 student, was not tired but was amazed at what science could achieve and also the experience has his dreams fuelled. He said, “At our orphanage, we do various chores — from cleaning the floors to washing the clothes. I want to build a robot that can do all this. But, isn’t it expensive and is it affordable?”
Vishal Gupta, co-founder, mycity4kids.com, co-organisers of the event, spoke about the need to create an eco-system to enthuse children from all backgrounds to pursue science or research as a career.
Earlier, at the inaugural function, Simon Gage, director and chief executive officer, EISF said that the one of the objectives of organising such event was to try and put science on the cultural map.
“EISF was first conducted 25 years ago. Earlier to that to popularise science, we conducted experiments and spoke about science at cinemas and parks”.
Speaking to The Hindu later, he said that they do not have hard data on how many youngsters have taken up science or research as career options after visiting their festivals in the last 25 years.
“However, many have communicated to us that the visits have kindled their interest in science.”
The festival will go on till September 8.
There is entry fee. For tickets online, you may visit www.mycity4kids.com or www.bhartiyacity.com/eisf
