Making science app-ealing to students

Cleared 350 words, plus photo
Panaji: Sanoffy Dias, a Class VIII student at Fatima Convent High School, Margao, was among the many students at Goa Science Centre who created a phone app on Tuesday. The unique feature of her development however was that her version helped track one’s phone etiquette.

“If a user has deliberately cut calls or is ignoring them, the app will send a notification to the caller. The app detects the behavioural pattern of the user to determine the same,” she said.

Until then, Dias knew very little about the science of building apps. But she was able to do so following a workshop at the annual Science Fiesta at the institution.

“It took my team two hours to build the app. It is a primary app which helps spy on people who could be ignoring you. Though we did it as a fun activity during the workshop, I will test the app and work on it further so that it can be launched on Google Play someday,” Dias said.

The three-day festival which commenced on February 26 also had a workshop on the making of vibrobots. Powered by small-sized vibrating motors, and built with paper cups and straws, students built the caricature robots in a matter of minutes.

The art of building a rocket was also demonstrated at the festival. “Usually high-dense fluids are used in rockets, but we have used water and air as a fuel in this demonstration,” said one of the instructors.

“These workshops are on advancing sciences by means of which we are encouraging young students to take up science as a career. They can elaborate their knowledge through the platform we are providing,” said Goa Science Centre, project coordinator, M M K Balaji.

Students were also seen exploring the various exhibits at the Goa Science Centre and visiting its galleries.

“There are a lot of things for students to learn outside the confines of a textbook; events like these help them explore such avenues and learn through science-fun. We need to encourage more events that have immersive learning and enhance scientific knowledge,” said Santoshi Chari, a teacher at Hedgewar High School.