IRIS National Science Fair 2012

DAIS student wins award from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers

The excitement gained momentum once the email from Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) announcing the selection of our project arrived. I felt extremely happy that our project had been selected for the IRIS National Science Fair 2012 which was being held in New Delhi. Immediately, we started work on improving our project: Analysis of Ingredients of Sports and Energy Drinks and their Effect on Heart rate and Short term Memory.

We worked hard and with the help of the teachers and our families, were able to put up a project that was both informative and attractive. I realized that I was representing my school and so had to give it my best shot

On the first day of the fair, we had to set up our stall. I thought that our stall looked amazing.

After setting up the stall, we went to watch the engrossing opening ceremony where they had a live performance by a group called Drum Café and they also had a chef talking about molecular gastronomy. The ceremony ended with the audience being briefed about the fair. But the best moment of the opening ceremony came when Dr. M Swaminathan, The Father of the Green Revolution, came and interacted with the audience

The next day was the most important day, The Judging Day. Before the actual interactive judging session, there was a pre-judging session in which the judges saw the projects while the participants played a treasure hunt. All through that one hour of pre-judging, my heart was doing somersaults! There were many questions that raced through my mind like did the judges like our project, how many marks did they give us etc. But the real test was yet to come, the Actual Judging Session. I was really nervous for this and I think so was Dharam.

There were four judges who would come to our stall and we were competing against 106 other projects. I was constantly wondering about the questions that they might ask us. As the first judge approached, I suddenly gained confidence and was able to speak and explain our project well, and so was Dharam. The first judge liked our project and so this just helped in increasing my confidence. The other judges also came and asked us some challenging questions. We stumbled upon some, but overall, the session went off well. But the toughest was yet to come

The next day was the Public Viewing Day in which people and schools from all over Delhi came to see the projects. We had to stay at our projects and explain the project to the people for about 6-7 hours. It was tiring but I feel that the people liked our project as it was easily comprehensible and had to deal with things we consume in our daily lives. The following day was the last day of the Science Fair and it started with some VIPs coming and seeing the stalls. It was followed by the closing ceremony after which the time came for which all the participants had been waiting for, The Award Ceremony.

In the start I was very tense as I hoped to win an award, but I was aware of the fact that the chances of that happening might be low as there were many good projects. But my dream came true, when we got an award from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. I was elated to hear my name being called out as it is not every day that you get an award from the government. I was thrilled and could not hold back my excitement. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will remember it forever as it was a once in a lifetime experience!

Mudit Agrawala