At the grand finale of Brain Café, students put up models that boggle the mind.
The rooftop conference hall at the Trident looks like a mad scientist’s laboratory. Only it has more fruits. It is actually the scene of the grand finale of Brain Café’s (a Zee group initiative for better scientific education for kids) first science fair.
Inside, there are a bunch of kids with immaculately combed hair, standing behind patchwork models that deconstruct and demonstrate the seminal physical laws of the universe using only a bit of thermocol, duct tape and ice cream sticks.
Agraj Kandekar, who later goes on to win one of the prizes on offer, is the creator of a rather eerie skeletal hand, which is controlled by seven or eight syringes filled with water. It’s an impressive display for the 12-year-old from Gandhi City Public School in Wardha. He actually manages — with all the finesse of a virtuoso - to make the hand clasp a rose and pick it delicately out of a vase.
Not all the models have such dramatic potential. But the point of putting together these colourful contraptions is not to dazzle but to learn. The clarity with which every child is able to demonstrate and explain the underlying scientific principles of their models is impressive.
Subhash Chandra, chairman of the Essel group, blames over-parenting for the lack of quality innovators in India. “Personally, I think parents are responsible for the dearth of quality scientists in the country. At every stage of their early life, children are stopped from exploring things on their own, from asking questions. They are always told no. By the time they are six or seven, their powers of questioning and experimenting have been depleted,” he says.
Sumit Mehta, CEO of Brain Café, says kids today spend 15 years of their lives preparing for the future. “But with all the focus on the future we tend to forget the present. Brain Café’s intention is to inculcate the joy of learning in kids so that they start love to learn. This is what will stand them in terrific stead in the future.”
At the end of the function, the winners were announced.
And as they all gathered on stage for a photo-op with Subhash Chandra, their beaming smiles created more wattage than any old potatoes ever could.
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