National Children's Science Congress

The first-ever National Children’s Science Congress (NCSC) was organised by NCSTC-Network, Delhi during December 20-23, 1993 at Bal Bhawan, Delhi with the support of National council for Science & Technology Communication, Govt. of India, New Delhi. It has since been made an annual activity to be held every year during 27-31 December. Children’s Science Congress (CSC) specifically aims both at school going children and out of school children of age 10-17 years, splitting into two categories: 10 to 14 years and 14 (+) to17 years.

The basic idea of NCSC is to demonstrate on large scale that it is possible to turn the learning of science into an enjoyable and creative pursuit; it is possible to encourage children to learn science by doing, by making use of their own hands and head treating their environs as a big, open and endless laboratory. Also, that it is possible to design activities in the form of small do-able projects which can effectively take the place of the present-day laboratory-bound Science practical. To give it a practical shape a focal theme is announced for CSC, for every two years. Themes for NCSC since 1993 are given below:

Theme

1993 : Know Your Environment

1994 and 1995 : Clean up India

1996 and 1997 : India of our dreams-let us go for it

1998 and 1999 : Nature – let’s conserve, share and care

2000 and 2001 : Indigenous scientific knowledge for a better tomorrow

2002 and 2003 : Food systems – towards nutrition for all

2004 and 2005 : Harness water resources for better future

2006 and 2007 : Biodiversity – nurture nature for our future

2008 and 2009 : Planet Earth:Our home – Explore, Share and Care

2010 and 2011 : Land Resources : Use for prosperity, Save for posterity

2012and 2013 : Energy: Explore, Harness & Conserve

2014 and 2015 : Understanding Weather and Climate

Guidelines for Teachers and participants :

CSC projects are related to learning by problems solving method. The project should fall within the theme and sub-themes defined for the year. Children may not succeed in finding solution to the problem in the specific period but the methodology adopted to find the solution should be scientific. They should design experiments/methods to validate the data collected or obtained.

The exercises of project activities, as a thumb rule, encourage the children to explore, think, serve and wonder. It is capable to imbibe the following temperament/quality/skill of the children:

– Observation,

– Making measurement,

– Making comparison and contrasts,

– Classification,

– Estimation,

– Prediction,

– Interpretation,

– Critical thinking,

– Creative thinking,

– Drawing conclusion and

– Cooperative skill

Therefore it is ideally expected that any group of children will undertake a project work with a perspective of continuous effort of questioning and experimentation.

Observation and questioning. (What ? Where ? When ? Why ? How ? Whom ?)

Do back-ground work like reading relevant literature and discussing with person having expertise on the issues of concern

Construct hypothesis (assumption)

Carry out survey and experimentation

Analyze results and draw conclusion

Hypothesis is true

Hypothesis is false or partially true

Report results

Communicate with large masses in the neighborhood and take some action initiatives

Tentative Activity Schedule

Selection of subjects and activity for registration of teams : June-August
Working on the project : About two months
District level Congress : By September - October
State level Congress : By October - November
National level Congress : 27-31 December

Approaches of Evaluation

The innovative ideas and scientific methodology are the basis of a good project but one has to prove his communication skills also to make others listen and understand his findings. For doing this, a total cooperation in the group is a must. Accept positive criticism within the group or even from outside and improve the work plan. This will bring award and recognition.

Evaluation Criteria