Science fair for students across south India
The Royal Society of Chemistry participated in a leading science fair for school and university students.
Once a year, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore opens its doors to the public. Every IISc department attends, giving hundreds of people the chance to visit, learn, ask about and understand the research culture of the institute. This year’s open day took place on 4 March at the lush green IISc campus in Bangalore.
Open day events are designed to appeal to a wide variety of audience groups – from schoolchildren and teachers to professors and industrialists, and the programme draws a big crowd every year.
This year’s open day was dominated by school students from all over Karnataka. Students from the neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu also plan their trip to Bangalore to coincide with the IISc open day.
Programme events this year included talks, open labs, interactive demos, competitive events, educational games and general stalls. We have actively participated in the event for the past few years and had an increased presence in 2017.
Hands-on chemistry experiments
Our contribution was an interactive demo and hands-on lab experiment for the schoolchildren in the Material Research Centre (MRC). Children aged 12–15 had a unique opportunity to conduct hands-on chemistry experiments on colour creation and slime in a make-shift open lab. The interactive demonstration on chemistry experiments at micro scale level was headed by one of our volunteers Dr Rajendra Rane, with support from our teacher developers.
As co-sponsors of the IISc’s chemistry department stalls, we also have a permanent presence in the chemistry pavilion. This year our stall featured an engaging educational quiz for students, with one of our periodic table wall charts as the prize. The quiz, in which students had to identify around 30 chemistry elements hidden in the word search grid, proved extremely popular, with students of all ages, as well as parents and teachers, having a go at completing it.
With an average footfall of more than 10,000 people, the IISc’s open day is an excellent opportunity to promote our educational activities. The Royal Society of Chemistry stall drew the attention of teachers, higher education students and researchers, all of whom had chance to speak with an education coordinator and take away information about the various education and career resources we have available.
This story appears as part of the May edition of our India Newsletter.
Tell us your story
If you've been involved in an event or activity, or just have an interesting story to tell, we want to hear from you! Please get in touch with us by email.
Press office
- Tel:
- +44 (0) 20 7440 3351
- Email:
- Send us an email