Around 800 students from 97 schools came together recently in a battle of wits for the 19th National Children’s Science Congress (Hyderabad District). The teams worked on over 100 projects focusing on the theme Land Resources and concentrated on areas like land quality, sustainable use of land resources and community knowledge about land.

The children presented their projects to a panel of over 20 judges who were highly impressed with the maturity of some of the projects. “If ever there was a platform to recognise young minds, this is it,” says N. Raghunandan Kumar of the Planetary Society and a judge at the event. The objective of the Science Congress was to stimulate scientific thinking among children and to learn scientific methodology for observation, collection of data, experiment analysis arriving at conclusions and presenting the findings.

The children took a practical approach while conducting their research and took to the streets, questioning, observing, analysing and reporting their findings back to the community they questioned. The event, held at the GMR Model School in Bowenpally, was graced by some of the greatest academics of the city. P.V.R.K Murthy, chairman of the Gayatri Group of Educational Institutions and the chief guest of the event, says, “I am happy to address an event which promotes out-of-the-classroom approach and encourages research and practical experimentation.”

Eleven of the most innovative projects were selected and the teams will showcase their research at the state level next month and at the national level the month after.

Sunali, a participant, said, “I worked really hard on my project but I enjoyed doing it. I also got to learn a lot.” Most of the students, however, seemed a bit secretive about their projects given the competitive atmosphere of the Science Congress.