It was National Science Day this week! It’s always heartening when you see the younger generation taking strides to make a difference to the society.

Was lovely to watch my daughter, Divya and her friend Raanan, drive curiosity for the children with their initiative ‘Four Sparks’ for the underprivileged children at Shishu Mandir School in Bangalore. On the occasion of National Science Day, they launched ‘Science Spark’ at the school with an array of creative science experiments to make science a fun learning experience. Enacting as Madam Curie and APJ Abdul Kalam, they inspired the students on how the ‘Ordinary can do the extraordinary’. They followed it up with a bunch of demonstrations in chemistry and physics with experiments ranging from effect of Liquid Nitrogen on solids, liquids and gas ( an AHA moment when a bottle rocketed up the air) ; Gyroscope rotations; Chemical decompositions accelerated by catalysts (creating Elephant Paste!) etc. to the entire school of 300 students watching in awe conducted along with Experient Labs. As a run up to the Science Day, they had also done a fund raiser campaign for donating equipment for the Science Lab at the school as well as for future experiments they intend carrying out.

Prior to this, as a part of Four Sparks, for 4 months, they had been engaged with the children, teaching them to solve the Rubik’s cube and various Brain Games. To generate enthusiasm, they also conducted a Rubik’s cube contest on Science Day and it was amazing to see the agility with which the kids solved the Rubik’s cube. The efforts were sincerely applauded by the school administration calling out the ingenuity with which they were spending time for the greater good of the society.

Here’s wishing the school good luck as they embark on the journey of always kindling the curiosity of the kids. Thanks to 1M1B (1 Million for 1 Billion) for the instilling the spirit for doing things for a larger cause to the kids and Virendra Paliwal for the passion to kindle the joy of Science and to Shishu Mandir for the opportunity.