“We can tell the farmers in our area when to water the crops depending on the rainfall data that we have. We have installed a blackboard at the local temple where we display weather information which we have collected,” says Manisha M., a Class 8 student of the Indira Gandhi Government High School, Katterikuppam.
The project ‘Construction of local weather station at our school campus’ by Ms. Manisha and her team of four friends are one among 27 projects which have been selected for the ongoing 23rd State-level Children’s Science Congress at Puducherry.
Arul Kumar, a team member, adds that the students want to continue to monitor the weather and provide information to the largely agrarian area as it will be useful for the farmers.
“Over the period from June to October, we have collected information on rainfall, wind speed, humidity and temperature,” says Ms. Manisha.
Students compete in district and State levels in junior (10-14 years) and senior (14+ to 17 years) categories, where they have to present their findings. Each team has a maximum of five members.
From 120 projects last year, the Pondicherry Science Forum in collaboration with the Directorate of School Education (organisers of the State-level Children’s Science Congress) have received 185 projects this year signalling a growing interest in the programme.
Six projects from the Union Territory of Puducherry will be selected for the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) in Chandigarh University, Mohali.
The NCSC is organised by the NCSTC Network under the Ministry of Science and Technology and is held annually in December. The theme from last year, ‘Understanding Weather and Climate’ continues this year as well for the NCSC.
The NCSC aims to instill scientific temper and team work among the young scientists and encourage them to find scientific solutions to the problems they see around them with a focus on research.
At the State-level programme, there are 27 projects, 135 child scientists and 27 guide teachers participating from Puducherry, Karaikal and Mahe.
“It is the number 1 science programme. We have received a good response this year,” says A. Hemavathi, General Secretary, PSF. “If a school had more than 10 projects, then we have conducted ‘project cleaning’ where we helped them with their presentations,” she added.
The State-level programme was inaugurated by L. Kumar, Director of School Education on Wednesday.
The organisers released a book with the 30 best projects of last year.
On Thursday, the children will be taken to the Science Centre and Planetarium in Lawspet.
The results will also be announced in the evening.
The six team leaders of the winning teams from the UT will participate in the NCSC, along with State Coordinator, NCSC, Puducherry, B. Ravichandrane.
From this year, special cash awards have been arranged by the Department of Science, Technology and Environment for the teams selected for the National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC).
Two child scientists will also get the chance to participate in the 103rd Indian Science Congress at the University of Mysore in January 2016.
The topic for the NCSC next year will be based on sustainability.

Source : The Hindu