Haritham 2011, the two-day science talent expo of Chettinad Vidyashram, held on October 21, was an exhilarating mix of science and creativity. The expo underlined the need for environment conservation and brought to the fore concepts in science, commerce and maths, making it fun all the way.
As Prajith stirs the deadly combo of acetic acid and baking soda, the mixture suddenly explodes, giving the right amount of propulsion for his ‘cosmic rocket’, inspired by a YouTube video. His team mate Ashwath proceeds to show the original video recorded on his mobile phone. The tech-savvy kids got well deserved applause from the spectators.
Prajith, a Class 7 student and leader of the team that designed the rocket, says that the project was a culmination of concepts embedded in physics and chemistry. The entire concept was based on clubbing the acid-base reaction with the art of designing a plane, he added.
K Premalatha, a science teacher at the school, said, “The use of these visual demos has helped them to imbibe the core concepts.”
Untamed fears unleashed
“Welcome to the untamed forest” reads the ominous board. Before you know it, a shrill scream rings through the school hallway followed by the eerie soundtrack from Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece ‘Psycho’. Seconds later, a bunch of giggly girls emerge from a makeshift tent, trying their best to put up a brave front, but their dazed expression gives them away.
Designed by the Class 11 students of the Commerce Department, the ‘Untamed Forest’ was a maze game which linked concepts of science with commerce.
According to Mala Jayashree, who teaches Accountancy and Business Studies, the students came up with the concept of changing seasons in an ‘untamed’ forest, where environmental factors are out of control.
The students, dressed in tribal costumes, waited in the dark room to pounce on their ‘unwary prey’ and took immense delight in scaring the daylights out of them, says Yogesh, a Class 11 student, who dressed up as an Agori for the maze.
It was indeed a crazy experience for the students who went inside the ‘untamed forest’. “It was really dark inside and they were playing creepy music. We couldn’t even see their faces,” mused C Aparna, a commerce student.
Lost in Oriland
To add colour to the expo, students from Class 5 to Class 12 crafted myriad designs out of paper at the ‘Oriland’ event, which provided a platform for the students to unleash their creativity through Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.
The designs ranged from ’Ninja Stars’, which are paper balls made from tiny equilateral triangles, to ‘Magic Circles’ evolved from different types of folding, and more with the guidance of the Math Department teachers. The concept of crafting 1000 paper swans to signify good luck and peace was the predominant theme at the event, said Shubha Manohari, a maths lab teacher.