THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A city student is on cloud nine after she won a prize in a contest organised by the NASA. S S Sreelakshmi, the tenth standard student of St Thomas Central School, came first in “rocket construction and launching” contest organised by the space agency.
Sreelakshmi was part of a 45-member team of students from South India who had a chance to visit NASA recently. Over ten students from the St Thomas Central School attended the programme.
At the agency, the students got a chance to interact with scientists and view the equipment used for expeditions.
“The visit was exciting. We saw the Atlantis, moon rock and some paraphernalia used by astronauts. There was a moon landing show which too was thrilling,” Sreelakshmi said. The space agency also organised three contests for the visiting students - model trees construction, assembling model of a multi-purpose crew vehicle and model rocket construction.
“We were given a class on the model construction. Precision in construction and launching was key to the rocket’s movement. Luckily, my model flew above others,” she says.
According to Sreelekshmi, a visit to NASA would ignite a passion for science among students. “Our teachers encourage students to undertake such visits and I’m thankful to principal Sebastian P Joseph, vice-principal Shirley Philip and teacher Beena Nair for their support,” she said.
The young achiever’s other passions are abacus and Hindi. She has won abacus grandmaster title and a rank holder in the Hindi Prachara Sabha’s certificate course. Her father V Sudarsanan is a hydraulic mechanic in Abu Dhabi and mother S Sathi a housewife.