The Artchouna Soupraya Naikar Government Middle School in Mudaliarpet here might not have a fancy science laboratory, but that has not deterred it from joining the likes of international scientific organisations, research and educational institutions in contributing towards the understanding of crystals in its own small way.
The International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) has partnered with UNESCO to implement the goals of the UN-declared International Year of Crystallography 2014 (IYCr2014).
The government school, among the handful from India, has been a participant in activities held in connection with IYCr2014, including an international crystal-growing competition for schoolchildren. On Thursday, when the school held a project demonstration of its experiments on its campus, there were simultaneous events centred on crystallography in Japan, the U.S., Portugal, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Slovenia.
“We grew sugar, salt, Epsom salt, potassium nitrate, alum and borax crystals. It was a lot of fun,” said Dhanya P., one among the team of five of the Class 8 students who have entered the crystal-growing competition. “Even our body cells have crystals,” piped I. Kavidhan, the lone boy in the group. Gnanasoundari S., G. Gajalakshmi and S. Umadevi are the others in the group.
The team was guided by their teacher D. Aravindaraja. “The students came to school early and left late to grow the crystals. As the school does not have a laboratory, we found a clean, secure place to store them as they must not be disturbed,” said Mr. Aravindaraja. The students recorded temperature, mass, shape and size of the crystals, and observed them in room and cold temperature. They have also sent their recordings to a global experiment for IYCr2014 organised by the U.K.-based Royal Society of Chemistry, said Mr. Aravindaraja.
In June , another team from the school had won the ‘Faites de la science’ or the ‘Make Science Competition’ conducted by the Pondicherry Science Forum and Department of School Education in association with The University of Paris, for its entry ‘Crazy Crystal Creations’.
“It is experiences such as these that help students take an interest in scientific research and careers related to it,” said Mr. Aravindaraja. Ms. Dhanya agreed. “I want to study further in this field of geology and earth sciences. I now look at everything around me with a scientific lens,” she said.
The school is planning to demonstrate their experiments to other schools, including those in the rural areas, and have recently acquired a kit on crystals, rocks and minerals by National Geographic.
“I had organised a talk on crystals and how they are formed for the junior class. Next day, some of the students came to the school bringing their ‘creations’ from home, despite being reprimanded by their parents for wasting a kilogram of sugar,” laughs Mr. Aravindaraja. “Seeing their enthusiasm, I decided to enter the school for the various events. The school, especially our headmaster M. Mannadane has been very supportive,” he said.
