CHENNAI: Gravity, wheel and axle, pulleys – taking these terms to beyond their text book definitions, students from classes six and above came up with thermocol prototypes of survival kits for earthquakes and complex models armed with robots.
At the 42nd Jawaharlal Nehru Maths and Science exhibition that started on Monday at the Sri Ramasamy Mudaliar (SRM) Hr Sec School, Ambattur, four students from each of the districts in the State took part to give their best shot at the exhibition. Some of the exhibits were designed by the students, as their contribution to overcome social issues.
Eleven-year-old Elakkiya R from Erode, for instance, presented a prototype of a manually-operated sewage cleaner. “I have watched men in my area clean manholes filled with slush and drainage water which smells very bad. It is unfortunate that they have to put up with the unhygienic and unpleasant nature of work. So, I wanted to help them and along with parents’ support, we devised this,” she said, pointing to the model that operates with a simple, yet ingenious concept of a pulley and a conveyor belt.
The exhibition will go on for two days and the best from the lot would be sent to represent Tamil Nadu at the southern fair to be held in Kerala. One among them could even be sent to the national-level expo to be held soon, said one of the organisers of the exhibition. Parallelly, there are also seminars where in students explain to a panel of judges on how mathematical concepts could make things easier and prove advantageous in their life.
The grand exhibition that resembled a fair, high on decoration and spirits, saw huge participation from government, government-aided and matriculation schools. In fact, according to the chief educational officer T Sabitha who spoke at the inauguration on Monday, out of the 138 schools participating this year, 70 are government schools, 34 government-aided and 38 matriculation schools.
Mentioning that such exhibitions not only improve the standard of education but as a result, the pass percentage as well, she mentioned that the already high pass percentage would improve and reach as high as 95 per cent this year.
The inauguration was also presided over by the Minister of School education K C Veeramani, Minister of backward classes and most backward classes and denotified communities Abdul Rahim and state project director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Pooja Kulkarni.