Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) that confers Infosys Prize to scientists and researchers annually with a focus to inspire the young to choose a vocation in research, also holds ‘Limit Infinity’ series, an inter-school fest aimed at fostering interest in Science amongst school children.
The over-arching subject of interest being Earth Sciences, the theme of this year’s edition of Limit Infinity , was named - ‘Down to Earth’. Sishu Griha School that partners with ISF in organizing Limit Infinity had taken charge of formulating the competitions and of anchoring the show that saw participation of 470 school children.
A lecture session and final rounds of various competitions centred on the chosen theme were held at the Infosys campus, Electronic City this month. A quiz competition in geography which was called “Bazinga” became the acme of the show. Bazinga was not only well-crafted but also challenging; the questions were inventive, sustaining the interest of the both the participants and audience. Questions in all the rounds were without options. Hence, students had to answer from their repository of knowledge and memory. It also tested children’s decision making, taking of risks, self-confidence and time management. The marks for each round differed depending on the difficulty, time provided and the applicability of negative points. Thus the winner of the competition, Vivekananda School, was not the one which answered the highest number of questions but had confidence to take risks in the negative marking round. However, the team that stood third in Bazinga , NPS Koramangala got some of the misleading questions right.
The quiz required participants to relate their lessons in Geography to the general observations of day-night, rains, direction of winds, disasters, celestial bodies such as sun, moon, constellations and to scientific developments in the field of Astronomy. Some rounds required the contestants to decipher information from visual medium, make connections between the four images displayed and come up with one word/phrase that connected and represented all of them.
J.S. Srinivasan, Chairman, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science stating data and his own research in Environmental Science, emphasized the critical phase the planet earth is in. He posed analytical questions pertaining to atmospheric conditions and tackling of climate change which involved applicability of laws of Physics, properties of gases and other geological phenomena. He emphasized how the emission of Carbon Dioxide will have effect over the rise in water vapour which in turn would increase the absorption of heat. He alerted, “Rise in temperature will eventually result in the melting of ice blocs in the polar region which happened recently with the Larsen B ice shelf. Cracks are being observed with Larsen C shelf, another big chunk of ice adjacent to Larsen B.”
He added, “matter of concern is that the rapidity at which the climatic shift is taking place. The pace is 100 times faster than usual in the geological history of the planet. If we do not cut down our carbon emissions, we might push the earth to some unstable state unknown to us. The planet however will transform itself to another stable state over thousands of years, but it is human beings who would perish.”
Last competition of the day was “Rendezvous –Geollywood way”, where the contestants were shown a clip from a popular film that showcased an ecosystem, landscape or a geographical structure. Thereafter the students were asked to speak on the given geographical feature, its formation or its importance for one minute. It tested their knowledge over the given topic, speaking skills and their delivery.
Limit Infinity series was indeed a day that provided scope for students to learn more about the Earth systems and an opportunity to pursue these fields later in their careers. It would be truly life-changing for students if ISF starts conducting workshops in rural, government and semi-urban schools too.
