The second edition of The Hindu in School Science Festival – Avishkar – in Mysuru on Saturday evoked tremendous response with over 250 students from various schools from Mysuru, Hassan and other places turning up to showcase their innovative talent and creativeness on the picturesque premises of Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education (RIMSE), Yadavagiri.
The inter-school competition gave a platform for the schoolchildren to demonstrate their projects on scientific concepts even as other inquisitive and enthusiastic children thronged the venue to look at the inspiring ‘innovations’.
The event was open for children from Class 7 to 10 and each team comprised two students.
Swami Sathyakanthananda, Correspondent, RIMSE, who was the chief guest, inaugurated the festival in the presence of Yuvraj Jain, Founder, Excellent PU College, Mangaluru, the title sponsor of the event, teachers and parents and others.
The corridors of RIMSE, which was the venue partner, had turned into a sort of “innovation lab” with children displaying their projects and enthusiastically explaining their concepts to the visitors and the judges, who had the task of choosing the best ones.
A total of 44 schools took part with about 130 projects which were impressive and elucidated the students’ proclivity for science. Most children were accompanied by their parents and teachers.
After two rounds of screening, the jury zeroed in on three projects for the top three prizes besides finalising the five consolation prizes and two special prizes to encourage the talents.
The top three winners received the “Change Maker” award besides cash prize, trophy and a merit certificate. The first prize carried a cash prize of ₹5,000 while the second and third prize winners received ₹3,000 and ₹2,000 respectively.
Vittala Chaithanya N.M. and Yashwanth A.L. from Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala, Mysuru, won the first prize for their project on solar-powered grass mower. Developed as an ‘alternative’ to the battery-powered lawn mower, the device harnesses solar power to slice the grass.
Tushar Gururaj and Soumik Sinha from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Mysuru, bagged the second prize for their idea “Hantalk”. This is a device useful for speech-impaired people as the hand glove with circuits facilitates conveying messages displayed on the mobile phone of the person wearing the glove.
Hemanth Kumar M.M. and Shreyas U. from Vijaya School, Hassan, secured the third prize for their project titled “Uses of sound in medical treatment”.
Dhanalakshmi and Dhananjay from Elite School, Hassan, got the first special prize for their “river cleaning machine”. The rotating blades of the machine removes the trash and other wastes collected on the river surface and the belt running the blade shifts the collected waste to the rived bank.
Chirag Jain and Bharat Jain of National Public School bagged the first consolation prize. Pragna M. and Yashas of Demonstration School, Mysuru; K. Gauranga Datta and Sricharan S. from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Parth and Manav from St. Joseph’s Central School, Vijayanagar, Mysuru; and Shaizan Ulla Shariff and Meharan Ulla Shariff from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Mysuru, received the four consolation prizes respectively in appreciation of their work.
The chief guests, Swami Sathyakanthananda and H.R. Ananda Murthy, Chief Divisional Retail Sales Manager, Mysuru Divisional Office, Mysuru, who distributed the prizes, congratulated the students for their efforts. All participants received certificates for their participation.
