Group 4 is the name given to IB level Experimental Sciences. Every student of science at the grade 11 level is expected to participate in at least ten hours of collaborative project work. The focus of the project is the process of collaboration rather than the product of the execution. This year the theme was ‘Optimization of resources for energy conservation’. The students were divided into ten equal groups each with a teacher supervisor. Each group picked a topic by lot. The topics were Cooking Fuels, Automobile fuels, Air quality management, Wind energy, Rainwater harvesting, Soil, Solar energy, Bio mass energy, Paper and hydro electric energy.The students presented their projects in the Alumni Hall on the evening of 23 April 2009, for 9 minutes each. They introduced the topic with a skit and showed a movie explaining the project. The judges for the occasion were Dr Sundera Raman (Chief scientist at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Kodaikanal), Dr Soumini Joseph (Dr at the KHMS Hospital in Kodaikanal) and Mr Bryan Plymale (KIS Social Experience and TOK teacher).
First place was awarded to the group who presented ‘Hydro energy’. The second place was bagged by the group who presented ‘Soil’. There was a tie for the third place by the group who presented ‘Bio mass energy’ and the group who presented ‘Cooking Fuels’. The awards were gymkhana coupons worth Rs 1000, Rs 800 and Rs 600 for each group for the first, second and third place respectively.
A highlight of the evening was the inspiring talk by Dr Sundera Raman who has been designated by NASA to scout for young talent in South India. Dr Raman used a PowerPoint show titled ‘Fantastic Trip’ to give an amazing perspective on the micro and macro cosmos as well as to set students thinking on ‘Who we are in this amazing universe’. Click here to see the presentation.
The Science department is grateful to all the teachers, lab technicians, maintenance, finance, food services, stockroom, travel and IT departments for their cooperation and support.
Navam Pakianathan - Physics teacher
