VIJAYAWADA: Eleven girl students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) have received an invitation from National Space Society (NSS), USA for participating in International Space Development Conference (ISDC), 2018. The students will showcase and present their ideas on the topic ‘Living in Space’.
The girls will be visiting NASA and attending the conference from May 24 to 27. They will also visit a few space research centres in the US, after May 27.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan State project director G Srinivas said, “For the first time, the students of government schools, like KGBV, are going to attend the ISDC 2018, and we are proud of their achievements. All the 11 girls, who are ready to knock on the door of NASA hail from poor families, whose parents are orphans, dropouts etc. The students developed various projects on living opportunities in space.”
K Preethi of Class VIII will present a paper on ‘Sufficient place in Space’; T Saisri of Class VII will make a presentation on ‘Agriculture in Space’; M Pooja of Class IX will make a presentation on ‘Transportation in Space’; G Divya of Class X will talk about ‘Materials used in Space’; V Saidabhanu, a Class IX student, will speak on ‘Possible Industries in Space’; K Reddy Rani of Class VIII will make a presentation on ‘Growing plants in Space’; C Sneha, a Class IX, will talk about ‘Food’ while S Rohini, a Class IX, will speak about ‘Air in Space’; M Lavanya of Class 9 will talk about ‘Temperature’ and V Ashwini of Class VIII will present a paper on ‘Gravity.
All the selected students have received special coaching from Planetary Society of India at SHAR. Speaking on the occasion, N Sri Raghunandan Kumar, Director of Planetary Society of India said, “The students were given special training and awareness workshops for three months at Sriharikota Space Center. Internationally, NASA will conduct competition in 34 tracks and from AP 11 students from KGBV got selected for 11 different tracks. It is for the first time that students from government institutions are taking part in the conference.”
Speaking to the media, the selected students explained their project ‘How living in space can be made real’. “Gravity plays a vital role in space. For having a living in space, one must manage the gravity and match it with the Earth. I am going to demonstrate on this subject. I am quite happy for having got this opportunity,” V Ashwini said.